National Survey of Health
Information Exchange Organizations (HIO)
Reinstatement with change of a previously approved collection
No
Regular
09/14/2022
Requested
Previously Approved
36 Months From Approved
105
0
79
0
0
0
Electronic health information exchange
(HIE) was one of three goals specified by Congress in the 2009
Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health
(HITECH) Act to ensure that the $30 billion federal investment in
certified electronic health records (CEHRTs) resulted in
higher-quality, lower-cost care. In subsequent rulemaking and
regulations, ensuring that providers can share data electronically
across EHRs and other health information systems has been a top
priority. Beginning prior to HITECH, there has been substantial
ongoing assessment of trends in the capabilities of health
information organizations to support clinical exchange. These
surveys have collected data on organizational structure, financial
viability, geographic coverage, scope of services, scope of
participants, perceptions of information blocking, and
participation in national networks and TEFCA. While past surveys
assessed HIOs’ capacity to support HIE in a variety of ways, they
did not closely examine how HIOs support public health exchange.
Each of these areas of data collection will be useful to
constructing a current and more comprehensive picture of HIOs’ role
in addressing public health emergencies. Given the evolving nature
of the pandemic, assessing HIOs’ current capabilities is critical
as there are ongoing needs to share varied types of information
that HIOs may be supporting. The survey will collect data from HIOs
across the nation. These organizations facilitate electronic
exchange of health information across disparate providers, labs,
pharmacies, public health departments, and beyond. Little
information exists on how HIOs can address information gaps related
to public health. Thus, a first step to addressing these gaps, we
need to better characterize existing capabilities of HIOs. The
success of managing the current pandemic, and future public health
emergencies, relies on the ability to efficiently share key data
regarding health system capacity, contact tracing, testing,
detecting new outbreaks, vaccine updates, and patient demographics
to help address disparities in our response efforts. In addition to
measuring the capabilities to support public health, it is also
necessary to understand the broader picture of HIO capabilities to
support electronic health information exchange, their maturity and
challenges they face. There are four key areas that require this
broader assessment: (1) adoption of technical standards; (2)
perceptions related to information blocking; (3) HIE coordination
at the federal level; and (4) organizational demographics,
including technical capabilities offered by HIOs and the challenges
they face in supporting electronic health information exchange. The
ultimate goal of our project is to administer a survey instrument
to HIOs in order to generate the most current national statistics
and associated actionable insights to inform policy efforts. The
timely collection of national data from our survey will assess
current capabilities to support effective electronic information
sharing within our healthcare system related to COVID-19 and other
public health relevant data.
Made correction to duplicate
burden entry. We have updated the number of respondents based on
the most recent available estimates, which reflect the
consolidation of HIOs over time. To accommodate the need to ask new
COVID and public health focused questions, the survey expanded in
length, accounting for the additional response time.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.