Amazing that the takeaway is that its easier to buy a gun than to get credentialed as a physician is…
NAHIT Shuts Down
The National Alliance for Health Information Technology announced this morning that it will cease operation on September 30. COO Jane Horowitz says NAHIT has accomplished its mission of moving HIT “front and center” to reinvent the US healthcare system.
The NAHIT announcement says the challenge of implementing and using technology can be better met by other organizations. It named those as the American Hospital Association and the College of Health Information Management Executives, both of which were NAHIT founding members.
NAHIT was founded in 2002 as a technical standards organization. CEO Scott Wallace resigned in early 2008 as the group explored “new strategies and tactics and a different operating structure.” According to federal records, NAHIT took in $3.5 million in 2007, but had net liabilities of over $600,000. Scott Wallace was paid $679,000 that year.
NAHIT, along with HIMSS and AHIMA, found CCHIT in 2004. It also funded a controversial project to define five common healthcare technology acronyms, paying BearingPoint $500,000 for the job. The organization had begun calling itself “The Alliance” in 2005.
The HIMSS Web site refers to NAHIT as one of its sister associations, along with AHIMA, AMIA, CHIME, and eHI.
First AHIMA’s CEO, Linda Kloss, announces her resignation. Now NAHIT, one of HIMSS’ sister organizations is dead. No More CCHIT slush money going to AHIMA and NAHIT!
NAHIT says CHIME and AHA, two organizations closely related to HIMSS, should take the lead. We need to break that down too. The Nonprofits should not determine the outcome of healthcare reform.
HIMSS CEO H. Stephen Lieber is now alone, holding what’s left of the CCHIT for-profit monies, as the CCHIT Fiduciary Trustee Chair. He will have a lot of explaining to do to the Internal Revenue Service.
May CCHIT R.I.P.
I don’t think the CCHIT story is even being close to being told… the flow of money between the founding groups seems highly improper.