The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives 2012 Fall CIO Forum in Indian Wells, Calif., kicked off with an early morning session updating attendees on the status of national and regional health information exchange efforts.

A speech by Dave Minch, president and chief operating officer of HealthShare Bay Area, a San Francisco-area HIE, included a wrapup of the national EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup and the California-focused HIE Ready, a project of the Cal eConnect HIE. The EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup, which is a consortium of 15 states, 37 technology vendors and 34 HIEs, is close to beginning testing and certification for HIE data transmission, Minch said. A certification pilot is scheduled for November and the full program is expected to start in January in conjunction with the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, Minch said.

Minch also noted that HIE Ready next month is expected to release the results of its HIE Ready Buyers Guide, which will describe at a core level what participating vendors currently are capable of regarding interoperable health information exchange.

George Hickman, executive vice president and chief information officer for Albany (N.Y.) Medical Center, in a separate discussion, described the evolving HIE landscape in New York state, and suggested that providers and payers may be moving toward relying on the NY eHealth Collaborative as the primary HIE. Payers currently cover about 80% of the operating costs of a separate HIE in upstate New York, and are starting to ask what they're getting out of it, he said.

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