NYeC News

October 26, 2009 – NEW YORK – The New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) today announced the appointment of its new Executive Director, Mr. David L. Whitlinger. Additionally, NYeC has received a $35 million grant from the State of New York through Phase 10 of the Healthcare Efficiency and Affordability Law for New Yorkers (HEAL 10). The grant will support NYeC’s efforts to advance the development and implementation of New York’s health information infrastructure.

NYeC has published a Questions and Answers document related to its recent Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking vendors to assist NYeC in completing certain of the tasks required of it pursuant to NYeC’s anticipated contract with NYS DOH for the HEAL 10 program.

View the Question and Answers here

View the RFP here

NYeC is pleased to release the position specifications for the new Executive Director that we are currently recruiting. Rachel Block, our former Executive Director, has been appointed to the position of Deputy Commissioner, Office of Health Information Technology Transformation, at the New York State Department of Health. The firm of Korn/Ferry has been engaged to conduct the search. During this transition period, the Board has hired John Corwin, an experienced nonprofit leadership transition specialist, to serve as NYeC’s Interim Executive Director.

The New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) submitted comments to the federal Dept. of Health and Human Services on June 11, 2009 outlining its feedback on the draft description of the Health IT Regional Extension Center Program, a key new initiative included in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

At the January 29, 2009 meeting of NYeC's Policy and Operations Council, the New York State Department of Health announced that it had approved two other work products emerging from the Statewide Collaboration Process. These items are as follows:

NYeC is pleased to announce that the initial set of policy and technical requirements (sometimes referred to as Version 1.0) for the RHIOs and CHITAs participating in the HEAL NY Phase 5 Health IT grants program have been approved by the NYeC Board and the Department of Health (DOH).

The New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) is pleased to announce the release of a new white paper that examines the potential role for accreditation of regional health information organizations (RHIOs) as part of New York’s health information technology (health IT) strategy. The report, Interoperable Health Information Exchange Policy, Governance, and Accountability, was written by researchers from Manatt Health Solutions with assistance from an advisory committee consisting of several national experts in the field.

~ New York eHealth Collaborative Plays Key Role in Setting Standards for Interoperable Health Information Exchange ~

On May 12, 2008, the New York State Department of Health (NYS DOH) and the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) hosted a kickoff meeting for the HEAL 5 health IT grant awards project. At the meeting NYS DOH and NYeC presented details of the "Statewide Collaboration Process" (SCP), which will be a multi-stakeholder effort to develop policies, technical standards, and operational guidance for health IT and HIE projects. During breakout sessions the missions and activities for each of the SCP workgroups were reviewed.

On April 2, 2008, the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) convened a meeting of its Policy and Operations Council. At the meeting NYeC presented details on the draft structure, workflow, and agenda of the “Statewide Collaboration Process” which the New York State Department of Health (NYS DOH) has engaged NYeC to oversee. This collaboration process will be a multi-stakeholder effort to develop policies, technical standards, and operational guidance for the “Statewide Health Information Network for New York” (SHIN-NY).