§ 9351. Health Information Technology Plan
(a)(1) The Department of Vermont Health Access, in consultation with the Department’s Health
Information Exchange Steering Committee, shall be responsible for the overall coordination
of Vermont’s statewide Health Information Technology Plan. The Plan shall be revised
annually and updated comprehensively every five years to provide a strategic vision
for clinical health information technology.
(2) [Repealed.]
(3)(A) The Department, in consultation with the Steering Committee, shall administer the
Plan.
(B) The Plan shall include the implementation of an integrated electronic health information
infrastructure for the sharing of electronic health information among health care
facilities, health care professionals, public and private payers, and patients. The
Plan shall provide for each patient’s electronic health information that is contained
in the Vermont Health Information Exchange to be accessible to health care facilities,
health care professionals, and public and private payers to the extent permitted under
federal law unless the patient has affirmatively elected not to have the patient’s
electronic health information shared in that manner.
(C) The Plan shall include standards and protocols designed to promote patient education,
patient privacy, physician best practices, electronic connectivity to health care
data, access to advance care planning documents, and, overall, a more efficient and
less costly means of delivering quality health care in Vermont.
(D) A representative of the Green Mountain Care Board shall be a voting member of the
Steering Committee.
(b) The Health Information Technology Plan shall:
(1) support the effective, efficient, statewide use of electronic health information in
patient care, health care policymaking, clinical research, health care financing,
and continuous quality improvements;
(2) educate the general public and health care professionals about the value of an electronic
health infrastructure for improving patient care;
(3) ensure the use of national standards for the development of an interoperable system,
which shall include provisions relating to security, privacy, data content, structures
and format, vocabulary, and transmission protocols;
(4) propose strategic investments in equipment and other infrastructure elements that
will facilitate the ongoing development of a statewide infrastructure;
(5) recommend funding mechanisms for the ongoing development and maintenance costs of
a statewide health information system, including funding options and an implementation
strategy for a loan and grant program;
(6) incorporate the existing health care information technology initiatives to the extent
feasible in order to avoid incompatible systems and duplicative efforts;
(7) integrate the information technology components of the Blueprint for Health established
in chapter 13 of this title, the Agency of Human Services’ Enterprise Master Patient
Index and all other Medicaid management information systems being developed by the
Department of Vermont Health Access, information technology components of the quality
assurance system, the program to capitalize with loans and grants electronic medical
record systems in primary care practices, and any other information technology initiatives
coordinated pursuant to 3 V.S.A. § 3027; and
(8) address issues related to data ownership, governance, and confidentiality and security
of patient information.
(c) The Department of Vermont Health Access, in consultation with the Steering Committee,
may propose updates to the Plan in addition to the annual updates as needed to reflect
emerging technologies, the State’s changing needs, and such other areas as the Department
deems appropriate. The Department shall solicit recommendations from interested stakeholders
in order to propose updates to the Health Information Technology Plan pursuant to
subsection (a) of this section and to this subsection, including applicable standards,
protocols, and pilot programs, and may enter into a contract or grant agreement with
appropriate entities to update some or all of the Plan. The Department of Vermont
Health Access shall distribute the updated Plan to the Secretary of Administration;
the Secretary of Digital Services; the Commissioner of Financial Regulation; the Green
Mountain Care Board; the Secretary of Human Services; the Commissioner of Health;
the Commissioner of Mental Health; the Commissioner of Disabilities, Aging, and Independent
Living; the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare; the House Committee on Health
Care; affected parties; and interested stakeholders. Unless major modifications are
required, the Department may present updated information about the Plan to the legislative
committees of jurisdiction in lieu of creating a written report.
(d) The Health Information Technology Plan shall serve as the framework within which the
Green Mountain Care Board reviews certificate of need applications for information
technology under section 9440b of this title. In addition, the Secretary of Digital Services shall use the Health Information
Technology Plan as the basis for independent review of State information technology
procurements.
(e) The privacy standards and protocols developed in the Statewide Health Information
Technology Plan shall be no less stringent than applicable federal and State guidelines,
including the “Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information”
established under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
and contained in 45 C.F.R., Parts 160 and 164, and any subsequent amendments, and the privacy provisions established under Subtitle D of Title XIII of Division A of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Pub. L. No. 111-5, § 13400 et seq. The standards and protocols shall require that access to individually identifiable health information is secure and traceable by an electronic audit trail.
(f) [Repealed.] (Added 2009, No. 61, § 1; amended 2009, No. 156 (Adj. Sess.), § I.25; 2011, No. 63, § G.103; 2013, No. 79, § 49b; 2015, No. 172 (Adj. Sess.), § E.306; 2017, No. 85, § F.9, eff. June 28, 2017; 2017, No. 187 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. May 28, 2018; 2019, No. 53, § 4, eff. March 1, 2020; 2025, No. 18, § 27, eff. May 13, 2025; 2025, No. 62, § 1, eff. July 1, 2025.)