The HHS Office of the National Coordinator on December 20th released the Funding Opportunity Announcement “Exemplar Health Information Exchange Governance Entities Program” to help public or private organizations with established HIEs. Funding will provide approximately $800,000 for selected organizations to collaborate with ONC.
ONC will enter into cooperative agreements with up to four awardees. The goal is to work with each awardee to help them further develop and adopt policies, interoperability requirements, business practices, discuss how to reduce implementation costs, and assure privacy and security when exchanging health information. Working through a cooperative agreement as opposed to a grant ensures that there will be substantial involvement between ONC and the awardees.
Eligible applicants must be a not-for-profit entity, state government, or a component of a state government. Applicants must focus on the governance of HIEs between unaffiliated healthcare organizations, health information organizations, and across multiple vendor products.
Applicants must submit a non-binding letter of intent by January 11, 2012 to apply for the funding.
Applications are due February 4, 2013 and the anticipated award date is March 25, 2013. For more information, go to www.grants.gov.
