News

Microsoft Forms Health Services Alliance

• By Wyatt Kash
• 06/16/2008

The aim of the alliance is to connect disparate state and jurisdictional HHS systems give providers a single, comprehensive view into citizen and customer needs.

The alliance, which was announced June 12 at the Government Health IT Conference and Exhibition, will combine applications, information infrastructure and delivery expertise to accelerate efforts to bridge legacy programs.

The group will use version 2.0 of the Microsoft Connected Health and Human Services Framework, released this week. The framework details the core infrastructure requirements based on the Windows family of servers, tools and applications for integration, security, collaboration, reporting and analysis.

"The extensive engagement of current and future partners in this framework will allow all of our state customers to provide a holistic approach to serving the citizens with whom they are engaging," said Bill O'Leary, executive director of HHS for the U.S. public sector at Microsoft. "This group of partners is coming together to put a stake in the ground around connecting information technology and cross-agency processes so citizens are the beneficiaries of top-notch service."

HHS expenditures constitute as much as 40 percent of state budgets. Rising Medicaid costs are adding to those budgets each year. Many HHS agencies, departments and programs, however, remain disconnected both in terms of IT and internal processes. Those problems are compounded by layers of legacy systems that support services to the same individuals or families but which typically have little or no ability to reference each other.

The alliance expects to take advantage of a variety of ongoing solutions from current and future partner companies. Additional details are here.