The Oregon Health Authority HIE Onboarding Program was launched in January 2019 to provide support for the initial costs of connecting, or onboarding, designated Medicaid providers to Reliance eHealth Collaborative. Since its launch, the program has provided support to 51 unique health care organizations across Oregon. Totaling $1.8M in payments by the end of 2020, financial support provided through the HIE Onboarding Program has helped to offset the one-time costs associated with onboarding to Reliance eHealth Collaborative for both large and small primary care providers, specialty care providers, federally qualified health centers, critical access hospitals, behavioral health providers, and oral health providers among others. The Program is intended to help Medicaid providers who, in the past, may have been unable to connect to an HIE because of financial barriers, as well as providers who have previously been ineligible to receive federal financial support for health information technology.
Using financial support provided through the HIE Onboarding Program participating critical physical health, behavioral health, oral health provider organizations, and certain Medicaid major trading partners have been able to offset the actual costs related to HIE adoption activities. 
Most commonly, participating providers have been able to help pay administrative costs related to legal review of participation agreements and business associates agreements, staff time related to technical project management and workflow changes, staff time related to training and HIE Orientation as well as offsetting the costs incurred by Electronic Health Record (EHR) vendors for technical project work.
The HIE Onboarding Program provides financial support, in the form of Administrative Offset payments, for one of two methods of HIE participation. Because participation in Reliance eHealth Collaborative does not require the use of an EHR the HIE Onboarding Program may be used to support onboarding activities to the Community Health Record (Portal) or for those with EHRs, onboarding activities for Clinical Data Exchange (EHR Integration).
Funding for the HIE Onboarding Program is set to end on June 30, 2021. Medicaid Providers, interested in taking advantage of the support offered through HIE Onboarding Program should engage contact Reliance eHealth Collaborative by e-mailing HIEOnboarding@RelianceHIE.org or calling 855-290-5443, soon to ensure they are able to meet all the criteria before the end of funding on June 30, 2021.
Participation in HIE and the HIE Onboarding Program is voluntary. Participants must perform their own due diligence when selecting a health information exchange. The Health Information Exchange Onboarding Program is funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services through the Oregon Health Authority.
