Texas E-Health Alliance

The Texas e-Health Alliance is a premier entity that leaders in the Texas legislature, the Governor, and various state agencies refer to on matters related to all aspects of e-health, from HIE to telemedicine to remote monitoring. The organization engages in such activities as: advocating on behalf of e-health to the legislature and state agencies, providing timely news and updates to members, and facilitating communications efforts with the media and the general public.[1] Membership is open to any organization that has an interest in helping shape e-health policy, and is governed by a member board, with support from a full-time, professional staff. The board meets quarterly, and is responsible for creating advisory committees on specific e-health issues and will assign board members to serve on those committees.

• Promoting legislative, executive and regulatory policies that promote the adoption of e-health by health care providers and payers[1]
• Organizing and hosting an annual summit to foster dialogue and networking among leading e-health experts from both the private sector and local, state and federal government;
• Creating and distributing newsletters, emails, blogs, seminars and commissioned studies on the economic impact, cost containment, and quality improvement impact that the appropriate deployment of e-health can provide; and
• Supporting the efforts of health care providers and collaboratives to organize local health information exchanges (HIEs) across Texas.
• Spearheading and supporting The University of Texas' College of Natural Sciences creation of a new Health IT Summer Certificate Program.[2][3] As of August 26, 2010 this program received 2.7 million dollars in federal funding, and graduated its first class of 54 students this past summer.[4]

• Active participation in the state health information exchange planning and implementation process with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the Texas Health Services Authority.
• TeHA will be represented on all the THSA workgroups and will be meeting regularly with THSA leadership and staff.
• Providing support to HHSC as they develop their Medicaid/CHIP health information exchange.
• Developing a workforce plan for Texas to support provider transition to meaningful use in conjunction with other stakeholders such as universities, community colleges, and trade associations like TechAmerica.
• Working with the research community to ensure that EMR/EHR implementation that also supports meaningful clinical research.
• Partnering with the Texas Medical Association on provider education initiatives such as a guide of physicians on how to select and participate in RHIOs.
• Developing a Texas CMIO academy to support our hospital and health system CMIOs.
• Establishing a speakers’ bureau to link the best of industry resources to providers and community leaders.
• Working with telemedicine stakeholders and the Texas Medical Board to ensure that telemedicine services are available to patients in need, with a focus on those areas that have provider shortages.

[5]

• https://web.archive.org/web/20110728134855/http://www.txeha.org/docs/TEHA-100128.pdf
• http://www.thsa.org/media/1122/2010-06-24_thsa_board_presentation.pdf%5B%5D
• http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20100304/NEWS/303049983