August-September 2009

At the August Medicaid Management Information System conference, ACA met with key federal and state officials and business leaders and discussed the Medicaid IT Architecture (MITA) initiative, Medicaid program challenges, and opportunities for improvement. In these conversations, ACA emphasized its understanding of interoperability as achieving inter-agency service coordination through standardized operations, good communication, and data sharing.

During one of these discussions, the Private Sector Technology Group (PSTG) decided to establish a white paper committee to make recommendations about interoperability in the Medicaid arena. Dr. Allan Collautt volunteered and was nominated the leader of what is now known as the Health and Human Services Interoperability Advisory Committee (HHSIAC). PSTG will oversee the efforts of HHSIAC. The committee’s membership includes leaders of major IT and consulting companies, executives of Medicaid managed care organizations, and public health and human services officials.

The committee’s first project is to develop a health and human services interoperability white paper. The paper will explore the benefits of interoperability, its synergy with the MITA framework, necessary components of interoperability initiatives, and strategies for making them successful in improving service delivery for beneficiaries.