Sustainability plan for statewide e-health collaborative

A statewide electronic healthcare collaborative was nearing the end of its pilot funding from a large payer. The collaborative needed support in developing a broader funding plan in order to achieve its full statewide objectives. The collaborative brought together the state’s main healthcare stakeholders to overcome the barriers to electronic health record (EHR) adoption. The initial pilots were considered widely successful and provided lessons learned that would inform the planning for statewide rollout. The goal was to reach 90 percent EHR adoption by physicians in six or seven years, up from the 15 to 20 present EHR penetration estimated at the outset of the work.Over 145 regional healthcare information organizations had developed over the prior several years. Many had failed, most commonly due to the lack of a compelling, sustainable business model.Health Business Group developed a capital funding plan to enable statewide roll out of EHRs in physician offices as well as a health information exchange to connect electronic health data together across providers. The plan identified the resources required and alternative funding formulas based upon the pilot experience, projections, and other analogous benchmarks. Various options were developed and evaluated across several criteria including simplicity, equity, and alignment of incentives shared by all stakeholders.As a result of our success in uniting the key constituencies around a statewide rollout plan, the state legislature approved a multi-year initiative to provide tens of millions of dollars in funding for statewide EHR rollout.Around the same time, the federal government launched its Meaningful Use initiative to support EHR rollout. The client was well positioned and obtained substantial federal funding to expand its work. The client developed a strong reputation that it leveraged with the creation of a for-profit professional services group, which was developed with assistance from a Health Business Group team