A Survey Of Health Information Exchange Organizations In Advance Of A Nationwide Connectivity Framework

After more than a decade of investment in electronic health information exchange (HIE), the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is advancing a national framework-the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement-to connect islands of electronic data sharing. This national framework creates new potential opportunities and challenges for state and local health information organizations (HIOs). We undertook our sixth national HIO survey to assess the current state of HIOs and to newly examine anticipated responses to the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement. We identified eighty-nine operational HIOs, down from 106 in 2014. Although more than half of HIOs struggled with financial viability and competition from health information technology vendor-based HIE networks, many are large in scale, offer a breadth of services to diverse participants, and engage in network-to-network connectivity. Looking ahead, 56 percent of HIOs planned to participate in the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, and 41 percent were unsure. As the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement advances basic network-to-network connectivity, HIOs that have experience with such connectivity while also offering value-added services will be well positioned for sustainability and growth.