Manatt Health Managing Director Jonah Frohlich discussed the California Health Care Foundation’s “Why California Needs Better Data Exchange” report, which aims to address the shortcomings of the current HIE environment in the state, with Healthcare Innovation.
In this Q&A, the publication asked Frohlich, who formerly served as deputy secretary for health information technology for the California Health & Human Services Agency, if the state’s information exchange issues are similar to 10 years ago or if there has been significant change. Frohlich explained that fundamentally many of the issues are the same. “There are some important differences to note,” he clarified. “Twelve years ago, we were at the beginning of a journey to build electronic health record systems and implement them. Three percent of hospitals had a comprehensive EHR when the HITECH Act was initiated, and now it’s approximately 90 percent.”