state politics: idaho

ID Budget Committee: Fund Health Data Exchange

By Sharon Fisher, 2-13-08

After an extensive discussion, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee voted today to give a $350,000 supplemental in the 2008 fiscal year to fund development of the Health Data Exchange.

The Health Data Exchange will be phased in over five years and give different health providers – starting with three hospitals and 100 doctors – access to patient records. Advantages of the system include a complete record of a patient’s history regardless of location, with the potential of saving money by preventing Medicaid and pharmaceutical fraud.

This first phase, which was recommended by Governor Butch Otter, is focused on developing a system for pharmacies, including development of infrastructure and providing access to pharmacy data, said senior budget analyst Amy Castro.

The Health and Welfare department had applied for a federal grant to pay for the project, but was turned down, said Health & Welfare Management Services Administrator Dick Humiston, which led some legislators to wonder why it hadn’t been requested in general funds and why it needed to be paid for out of supplemental funds. He said the department had hoped that its private partners would move forward with the project even if the grant didn’t come through, but as it turned out they wanted to make sure the state would commit resources before they would commit theirs.

Other legislators suggested the state was being penny-wise and pound-foolish by not wanting to spend the $350,000, because the private companies involved – including Blue Cross, Regence Blue Shield, St. Luke’s and Saint Alphonsus of Boise, Kootenai Medical Center of Coeur d’Alene, and Health West in Pocatello – would be putting up $2 million for their share.

“We’ve got the private sector willing to put up $2 million for an excellent cause and we’re sitting here quibbling,” said Representative Fred Wood, R-Burley. “I think we’re remiss if we don’t.”

There was also some confusion about funding the Health Data Exchange project vs. funding the Health Quality Planning Commission itself, which was behind the project. The Commission was started in 2006 with a $200,000 ongoing annual budget, which last year was reduced to $100,000 by JFAC. (The remaining $100,000 was devoted instead to additional seats for students in the regional medical program, Wood said.)

In addition, House bill 489 was introduced yesterday to continue the Health Quality Planning Commission, which otherwise had been slated to sunset by June 30, 2008.  Interestingly, though the commission is currently being funded at $100,000 per year, the fiscal impact of the bill indicated that the cost of supporting the commission was $35,000 per year.

After the $350,000 supplemental for the 2008 budget, and an additional $150,000 in the 2009 budget, the Health Data Exchange is expected to pay for itself, Castro said. However, other states and regions have not had this experience.

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