The US Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has announced that New Mexico is the first state to meet all requirements for strategic and operational planning as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) state health information exchange (HIE) cooperative agreement program.
Many states have previously secured ARRA planning funding, but New Mexico is the first and only state to execute on its plan to meet ONC criteria and receive approval for implementation funds.
Using the $7 million ARRA grant, The New Mexico Health Information Collaborative (NMHIC) will be able to accelerate its plan to serve two million patients statewide. Currently, NMHIC has one million unique patients in its database, with access to patient record information from more than ten hospitals, two major medical groups, and two major laboratories.
The NMHIC network is largely powered by Centergy Data Exchange Services from Cincinnati,Ohio-based MedPlus, the healthcare information technology subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated.
