KONZA receives two-year award from ONC to assist health care providers and public health departments impacted by COVID-19

TOPEKA, Kan., Oct. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — The Kansas Health Information Network, doing business as KONZA, is pleased to announce it has been awarded a cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). KONZA’s award is part of ONC’s Strengthening the Technical Advancement & Readiness of Public Health via Health Information Exchange Program (STAR HIE Program). This program is funded under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) and is designed to support public health agencies in their efforts to respond to public health emergencies including disasters and pandemics such as COVID-19.

KONZA will use the funding to accelerate innovative uses of Health Information Exchange (HIE) data to support health care providers and public health agencies in the prevention of, response to, and recovery from pandemics that include COVID-19.

The two-year cooperative agreement will support KONZA in establishing COVID-19 public health registries for Kansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Mexico and Northern California and will assist provider organizations that report COVID-19 test results electronically to state public health departments. Furthermore, this award will provide funding for new integrations to the KONZA HIE platform for practices that have large numbers of COVID-19 patients.

“This award will help to build the infrastructure to transport health data quickly and effectively to public health officials and ensure healthcare providers have the medical information required to provide safe and effective care to their patients,” said Dr. Laura McCrary, President & CEO for KONZA. “Healthcare providers in communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 need near real-time data about their patient’s COVID-19 status, chronic disease conditions, medications, test results, and vaccinations to provide safe and effective care.”

About KONZA: KONZA operates exchanges in multiple states, including Kansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, New Jersey and Connecticut. KONZA is deeply committed to connecting healthcare providers, patients, health plans, and our technology partners together to organize healthcare data into information that will drive healthcare transformation. Patients, health plans, physicians, healthcare facilities, and other healthcare providers from across the country benefit from KONZA’s delivery of unequaled actionable intelligence. For more information, visit http://www.konza.org.

SOURCE KONZA