Business
More scrutiny of RHIO financing
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Dec. 3, 2007
A new report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation says regional health information organizations are not succeeding as the hoped-for basis of a national health information exchange.
The report, "Improving Health Care: Why a Dose of IT May Be Just What the Doctor Ordered," says that unsustainable funding and a lack of clear national standards for exchanging information has made interoperability difficulty for many RHIOs.
The report recommends that Congress create national health data standards and establish the use of electronic health record data banks.
Earlier, a report from the Healthcare IT Transition Group brought up some of the same concerns. It said that RHIOs were too reliant on grant money and were not actively seeking self-sustaining funding, such as contributions from participating hospitals and physicians.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/12/03/bibf1203.htm.
