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As the health care community watches the EHR meaningful use criteria take shape under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), some may be wondering whether the push for more interoperable health IT systems will truly improve care and reduce costs. Skeptics might find an example of success from an unlikely source: the government.

The Federal Health Architecture, which coordinates federal efforts for national healthcare IT initiatives under the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology, kicked off in March 2008 with a goal to achieve interoperability in government health IT operations. On board are 20 federal health agencies and 16 private sector entities that are all able to securely exchange electronic health data through the National Health Information Network ‘s CONNECT software, which is available to all states through an open source platform. Results from pilot users are starting to come in, and they look promising.

The Social Security Agency was one of the first to begin using the CONNECT network, through a partnership with Virginia’s Regional Health Information Organization, MedVirginia. Initial data has shown decreased time to determine benefits eligibility (weeks to days), faster decisions on outstanding claims, and significantly reduced administrative work and costs.

The SSA/MedVirginia partnership, and FHA in general, offer a microcosm of what health care IT might be like if HHS succeeds in its vision under the ARRA to consolidate all information exchanges relevant to electronic patient records. Currently, the Health IT Policy Committee is requiring that by 2011 EHRs include seven electronic data exchanges; including e-prescribing, lab results, clinical data summaries from provider to provider, biosurveillance, immunization registries, public health and quality measurement.

While these attempts to facilitate shared, structured data exchange may still fall short when it comes to standardizing workflow within a practice (see Nuesoft blog post highlighting the impact of technology standards on practices), the government through its efforts is giving health care a needed push down the path toward interoperability, and thus improving continuity of care and communication among providers