Each year NASCIO conducts a survey of the state CIOs to identify and prioritize the top policy and technology issues facing state government. The top ten priorities are identified and used as input to NASCIO’s programs, planning for conference sessions, and publications.
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) formed a collaboration to determine how the State Chief Information Officer (CIO) views the current health information technology landscape. Specific areas of focus for this study included Medicaid Management Information Systems (MMIS), Medicaid Eligibility Systems, Data Governance and Identity Management, State Level Health Information Exchanges, Shared Services and Collaborations. This study combined HIMSS’ expertise in health information technology and information exchange with NASCIO’s expertise representing state CIOs and information technology executives from the states, territories and the District of Columbia. The results of this collaborative survey will serve those seeking to understand the current environment of State healthcare technology initiatives ranging from governance models to data exchange activities. This analysis will also facilitate understanding of the intersection of the state CIO’s role with state health information technology (HIT) projects. This collaboration represents one of the first holistic analyses focused on the state CIO perspective of State HIT projects.
Each year NASCIO conducts a survey of the state CIOs to identify and prioritize the top policy and technology issues facing state government. The top ten priorities are identified and used as input to NASCIO’s programs, planning for conference sessions, and publications.
NASCIO, TechAmerica, and Grant Thornton LLP have collaborated on the third annual survey of state government IT leaders. Since the last survey of state chief information officers (CIOs) in 2011 – A New C4 Agenda (Consolidation, Collaboration, Clout, and Change) – we find that CIOs continue to be confronted with myriad responsibilities and leadership challenges. Some of these focus on continuing to provide many high-quality IT services to state agencies and employees (such as email and networking) as well as to citizens (such as online registration and licensing). Others focus on procuring, implementing, and managing new IT services, such as cloud platforms, mobile devices and applications, and social media. CIOs must maintain a balancing act, not allowing either the old or the new to dominate their attention.
This is an unprecedented time for health IT in the United States, and the backbone of achieving lower costs, better health outcomes, and system interoperability relies on an enterprise view. In response to the CMS release of Medicaid Information Technology Architecture (MITA) 3.0, the NASCIO Health Care Working Group has formulated guidance to states as they navigate Medicaid IT transformation. NASCIO continues to be an advocate for enterprise solutions and view the MITA framework as a way state CIOs can decouple legacy systems and break down existing silos in state government. State CIOs grasp the importance of modernizing the Medicaid enterprise in a way that is flexible, interoperable, and takes into consideration emerging technologies like cloud computing. In addition to emphasizing conformity to the MITA vision, the report calls attention to emerging security threats in the states and the importance of protecting personally identifiable information and personal health information.
Each year NASCIO conducts a survey of the state CIOs to identify and prioritize the top policy and technology issues facing state government. The CIOs top ten priorities are identified and used as input to NASCIO’s programs, planning for conference sessions, and publications.
NASCIO partnered with TechAmerica and Grant Thornton LLP to survey state and territorial chief information officers (CIOs) on their most challenging issues and significant opportunities. At a high level, the survey reveals this to be a time of evolving roles, changing organizational capabilities and demanding workloads for the CIOs. The themes that emerge from the 2011 survey results center on consolidation, collaboration, clout and change — a new state CIO agenda. The report, which is the second Annual Survey of State Chief Information Officers, is titled: “A New C4 Agenda: Perspectives and Trends from State Government IT Leaders.”
While NASCIO has continued to track the role of the State CIO in Health Information Exchange (HIE), the recently released issue brief highlights the importance of a sustainable public HIE. Included in the brief are best practices for creating potential revenue streams, considerations for systems development, and innovative options that may reduce maintenance and lower costs. State CIOs and state policy officials need to consider the business drivers that will ensure that revenues exceed costs to plan, implement and operate an interoperable HIE. State CIOs recognize that there is no better opportunity than now for carrying out these goals, but continued ingenuity will be imperative in ensuring a state-run HIE is independently sustainable when public grants may no longer be available.
Despite the contentious debate over national health care reform there seems to be one trend that has gained some degree of consensus at the state level – planning for implementation of state health benefit exchanges. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has already provided $2.8 billion in funding to states to build benefit exchanges, expand Medicaid eligibility and continue prevention efforts. In addition to the substantial amount of funding states have already received, they will receive billions more during 2011 and beyond. The Affordable Care Act provides states with the unique opportunity to either develop and run their own exchange or default to the federal government to establish and operate the exchange. State CIOs will play varying roles in health care reform, but irrespective of their responsibilities it will be imperative to provide sound leadership and provide feedback to governors on any IT gaps that may exist during this momentous time.
Each year NASCIO conducts a survey of the state CIOs to identify and prioritize the top policy and technology issues facing state government. The CIOs top ten priorities are identified and used as input to NASCIO’s programs, planning for conference sessions, and publications.
