State-level health information exchanges run the risk of becoming obsolete before they are even launched, according to an article published in the Journal of the American Health Information Management Association, CMIO reports.
Chris Dimick, a writer for the journal, writes that states have been slow to use the $548 million in grants that the State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program distributed to 56 states, territories and state-designated entities. He noted that many states still are developing sustainability plans and preparing to launch their health information exchanges.
At the same time, Dimick notes, private health care organizations proactively are contracting with IT vendors to create their own health information exchanges.
"If private health information exchanges corner the market on the most profitable services, state health information exchanges -- charged with providing a wider scope of services with a lower return on investment, such as connecting rural providers -- are being set up to fail," he writes.
Dimick notes that it remains unclear whether state-level health information exchanges will continue to coexist with private health data exchanges (Byers, CMIO, 5/14).