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Large amounts of federal money have been pouring into states to fund HIE creation. But what is the return on this investment? A recent survey indicated that only 50% of HIEs intend to even try to demonstrate or track their ROI! With financial sustainability continuing to be the number one concern for HIEs, demonstrating value should be a top priority.

But ROI is only one issue plaguing HIEs—there’s also the issue of sustainability. Kansas is an example of sustainability gone wrong. Its HIE recently voted to dissolve and turn operations over to the state.  While the initial federal grant provided needed startup funds, the HIE could not create a workable plan to cover the estimated $400,000 in annual operating costs.

Situations such as Kansas’ highlight the potential for additional problems, especially in locations where the state HIE is also being utilized to meet Federal Meaningful Use requirements. The failure of an HIE in one of these locations would be challenging for hospitals and medical centers—which would then fail to maintain their Meaningful Use 2 certification and lose federal reimbursements.

Healthcare professionals and facilities currently working with an HIE would be wise to keep a close eye on the financial viability and sustainability of the HIE they are working with.

Last week, CMS released the requirements for Stage 2 Meaningful Use. As expected, they build upon Stage 1 requirements by making many of the “optional” Stage 1 requirements mandatory. Perhaps the most significant change in requirements is that the reporting of Syndromic Surveillance data is mandatory in Stage 2 for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals.

For now, eligible professionals are excluded from this requirement because most public health agencies are not equipped to receive data from this group.

Other updates: To qualify, Syndromic Surveillance data must be submitted for all of 2014, the “entire EHR reporting period.” Previously, data only needed to be submitted for 3 months.

For a list of facts regarding the updated requirements, please visit the CMS website.

When a foodborne outbreak was suspected in New Jersey last week, Health Monitoring Systems’ EpiCenter Syndromic Surveillance system helped public health officials in the state to further investigate the outbreak’s cause and point of origin.

Three cases of foodborne illness were reported at a major medical center emergency room, leading the Middlesex County Health Department Epidemiologist to contact other local hospitals to see if similar symptoms were reported in their ERs. After running a report through EpiCenter, it was discovered that two other hospitals had admitted patients complaining of the same symptoms.

“We’re pleased that EpiCenter helped the public health professionals in New Jersey to quickly identify the foodborne illness outbreak,” says Kevin Hutchison, Health Monitoring Systems’ President and CEO.

“EpiCenter provides health professionals with the resources needed to manage public health outbreaks in real-time. The success of this detection comes only a few months after our successful collaboration with the state of New Jersey to measure the health impacts of Hurricane Irene—the results of which will help the state and its residents to better prepare for future weather-related health events.”