State Plan
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) provides for the advancement of health information technology (HIT) in an effort to save lives and lower health care costs. This legislation provides federal funding for HIT infrastructure, training, dissemination of best practices, telemedicine, and State grants to promote HIT.
Section 3013 of the HITECH Act requires states or state-designated entities (SDE) to submit, and receive approval of a "State Plan" in order to qualify for implementation funding. To carry out the intent of the Act, the State Plan is defined as consisting of two deliverables: A Strategic Plan and an Operational Plan. Both the Strategic and the Operational Plans must be approved by the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
South Carolina's Strategic and Operational Plans describe the activities that South Carolina must complete to enable or implement HIE services that will allow for eligible providers to achieve success.
The South Carolina Strategic Plan addresses the vision, goals, objectives and strategies for statewide HIE development; the plans to support HIT adoption; and addresses continuous improvement in realizing effective and secure HIE across health care providers.
The South Carolina Operational Plan contains details on how the Strategic Plan will be executed to enable statewide HIE. The specific actions and roles of various stakeholders in the development and implementation of HIE services are included. In addition, the Operational Plan includes descriptions of current implementation activities and how these activities fit into the state's future plans for HIE.
Both plans are accessible via the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services HIT website: www.scdhhs.gov/HIT.