In March of 2010 the State Health Policy Consortium (SHPC) was established through an HHS contract with RTI International.  The SHPC is working to facilitate groups of states in resolving policy issues to enable the interstate exchange of electronic health information.  Groups of three or more states can apply for support services such as subject matter experts, meeting resources, policy research and legal research, and travel to approved multistate Consortium.

The first round of funding closed June 9^th, 2010.  One Consortium, the Upper Midwest HIE Consortium (UM-HIE) received an award in the first round.  The UM-HIE Consortium will convene representatives from six states, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, to work together to create concrete regional solutions to barriers affecting HIE for treatment purposes.  The project will build on the previous work of the HISPC project to pursue the development of template language for interstate agreements or other similar mechanisms that will enable interstate HIE despite differences in individual state consent laws.

The next rounds of applications are due September 22, 2010.  Contingent on funding availability additional rounds will also be available.  For additional information about this opportunity please see the project website: http://www.rti.org/shpc