Texas E-Health Alliance
Texas E-Health Alliance is a 501(c)(6) corporation founded in 2009 that brings together the provider, corporate, non-profit and academic health care communities with policymakers in order to create an effective e-health policy for Texas.
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About
The Texas e-Health Alliance is a premier entity that leaders in the Texas legislature, the Governor, and various state agencies refer to on matters related to all aspects of e-health, from HIE to telemedicine to remote monitoring. The organization engages in such activities as: advocating on behalf of e-health to the legislature and state agencies, providing timely news and updates to members, and facilitating communications efforts with the media and the general public.[1] Membership is open to any organization that has an interest in helping shape e-health policy, and is governed by a member board, with support from a full-time, professional staff. The board meets quarterly, and is responsible for creating advisory committees on specific e-health issues and will assign board members to serve on those committees.
Activities
- Promoting legislative, executive and regulatory policies that promote the adoption of e-health by health care providers and payers[1]
- Organizing and hosting an annual summit to foster dialogue and networking among leading e-health experts from both the private sector and local, state and federal government;
- Creating and distributing newsletters, emails, blogs, seminars and commissioned studies on the economic impact, cost containment, and quality improvement impact that the appropriate deployment of e-health can provide; and
- Supporting the efforts of health care providers and collaboratives to organize local health information exchanges (HIEs) across Texas.
- Spearheading and supporting The University of Texas' College of Natural Sciences creation of a new Health IT Summer Certificate Program.[2][3] As of August 26, 2010 this program received 2.7 million dollars in federal funding, and graduated its first class of 54 students this past summer.[4]
Current initiatives
- Active participation in the state health information exchange planning and implementation process with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the Texas Health Services Authority.
- TeHA will be represented on all the THSA workgroups and will be meeting regularly with THSA leadership and staff.
- Providing support to HHSC as they develop their Medicaid/CHIP health information exchange.
- Developing a workforce plan for Texas to support provider transition to meaningful use in conjunction with other stakeholders such as universities, community colleges, and trade associations like TechAmerica.
- Working with the research community to ensure that EMR/EHR implementation that also supports meaningful clinical research.
- Partnering with the Texas Medical Association on provider education initiatives such as a guide of physicians on how to select and participate in RHIOs.
- Developing a Texas CMIO academy to support our hospital and health system CMIOs.
- Establishing a speakers’ bureau to link the best of industry resources to providers and community leaders.
- Working with telemedicine stakeholders and the Texas Medical Board to ensure that telemedicine services are available to patients in need, with a focus on those areas that have provider shortages.
References
- Emily Ramshaw (2010-01-28). "Can Texas Doctors Embrace Electronic Records". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
- "Story" (PDF). austin.bizjournals.com. May 3, 2010. Retrieved 2019-06-08.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-03-17. Retrieved 2010-06-25.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2010-07-25.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)