Since its creation in 2010, the Oklahoma Health Information Exchange Trust has provided financial support to rural hospitals to defray the costs of implementing electronic health records and connecting to the health information exchange.
Now that OHIET's federal and state grant funding has expired, the organization will struggle to continue its work connecting providers, according to a report in The Oklahomian.
The OHIET is not the only HIE that will experience financial challenges this year. Federal and state funding is expiring this year for HIEs across the country, meaning these organizations will have to rely on support or fees from users.
However, a recent survey from Black Book suggests providers are hesitant to support public HIEs. Responses showed 95 percent of payers, 83 percent of hospitals and 70 percent of physicians feel current public HIEs are not providing needed services. Additionally, 72 percent of respondents said by 2017, as few as 10 of the currently functioning public HIEs will be able to sustain operations using their current business models.
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