Preparing to Implement HITECH: A State Guide for Electronic Health Information Exchange

The State Alliance for e-Health, a consensus-based, executive-level body composed of governors, state legislators, attorney generals and state commissioners, was created by the NGA Center for Best Practices in 2006 to address the unique role states can play in facilitating adoption of health IT and HIE. The HITECH Act, enacted as part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, expands the role of states in fostering health information exchange and adoption of electronic health records over the next five years.