Beacon program success highlights HIE value

The Beacon Community program has shown that health information exchange meets real business needs and brings value to the industry, according to National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari. Mostashari, speaking on an ONC webinar on the Beacon experience May 22, noted that the Beacon Communities' successes in data sharing "highlight" the need for others to recognize this need and value, as well, especially as healthcare moves from fee for service medicine to care coordination and pay for performance, EHRIntelligence reports.

The Beacon Community program is a federally funded project designed to increase efficiency, quality and sustainability of healthcare though health IT, and is slated to end in 2013. There are 17 Beacon Communities throughout the country; ONC will continue to work with each one to determine lessons learned and how the industry should prioritize health IT. Article