Monthly Update

March 2019 in Review

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In This Issue…

  1. AIRA Convenes an In-Person Board Meeting
  2. AIRA/CDC Cooperative Agreement Reverse Site Visit
  3. Help AIRA Help You by Completing the AIRA Education Survey Today!
  4. Save the Date: CDC Provider IIS Participation Community of Practice Webinar 
  5. More Opportunities to Make Your Voice Heard! Gathering Comments on ONC and CMS Proposed Rules
  6. AART Clinics at AIRA National Meeting – Sign Up Today
  7. Recent Information Requests Added to the AIRA Repository
  8. Steering Committee Updates: March Recap

Check Out the AIRA Events Calendar for Upcoming…


AIRA Convenes an In-Person Board Meeting

The AIRA board of directors held an in-person meeting February 5–7 in Savannah, Georgia. The meeting provided organizational updates as well as the opportunity to begin working on the next AIRA strategic plan. The current AIRA strategic plan runs from 2017 through 2019, and a careful review shows that AIRA has successfully achieved the majority of goals set forth in this plan. The work done in Savannah will set AIRA’s strategic course for 2019–2021. The board will finalize the new strategic plan over the coming months and will present it for approval to the AIRA membership once completed. 

Fun fact: more than half of the board and staff were on the same flight out of Savannah (pictured left). 




 AIRA/CDC Cooperative Agreement Reverse Site Visit 

In early March, several AIRA staff and the board president met with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Immunization Information Systems Services Branch (IISSB) team for our annual Cooperative Agreement reverse-site visit. This meeting provides an opportunity to share the progress AIRA has made in completing the objectives and activities set forth in its annual application. In addition to providing updates, this meeting also offers an opportunity to discuss identified community needs and the best way to address these needs. Examples include identifying education topics that are relevant to the community and the subject matter experts who might be best suited to speak on these topics. This meeting was a great opportunity to meet with CDC leaders and strengthen the valued partnership with CDC IISSB. 


 Help AIRA Help You by Completing the AIRA Education Survey Today! 

AIRA is asking all IIS community members to take a short survey to assess the educational needs of people who work with immunization information systems (IIS). The results of this survey will help guide the educational activities of AIRA throughout the next two years.

Please have as many staff as possible with an IIS, immunization or programmatic role complete this survey. We benefit from having multiple responses from the same awardee/organization/company.

This survey should take approximately 20 minutes, and we are asking to receive feedback by the end of the day on Friday, April 19.


Save the Date: CDC Provider IIS Participation Community of Practice Webinar

The AIRA Education Steering Committee is hosting a highly interactive webinar on Wednesday, April 10 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET to introduce the CDC Provider IIS Participation Community of Practice. The webinar will include an overview of the CDC Provider IIS Participation Community of Practice and collect and share ideas for addressing important provider IIS participation issues, including onboarding, electronic health record (EHR) assistance, data quality, and provider training and outreach. You can register for the webinar here. The webinar information can also be found on the AIRA website. We hope you will be able to join us.

If you are unable to attend this session, a recording link can be found after the session by using the “webinars” filter in the AIRA repository.


More Opportunities to Make Your Voice Heard! Gathering Comments on ONC and CMS Proposed Rules

Work is under way across the community to collect AIRA comments once again. As you may have heard, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released two new Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRMs) for comment in February. The rules were released in a pre-published form on Monday, February 11 and published in the Federal Register on Monday, March 4.

ONC’s rule, RIN 0955-AA01, is titled 21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program. The Federal Register version is now available online, and the pre-published PDF can be found here. The rule focuses on implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act regarding certification requirements for EHR products, along with what does and does not constitute information blocking.

CMS’s rule, CMS-9115-P, is titled Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Interoperability and Patient Access for Medicare Advantage Organization and Medicare Managed Care Plans, State Medicaid Agencies, CHIP Agencies and CHIP Managed Care Entities, Issuers of Qualified Health Plans in the Federally-facilitated Exchanges and Health Care Providers. The Federal Register version is now available online, and the pre-published PDF can be found here. This proposed rule focuses on improving access to and quality of information for patients while minimizing reporting burdens.

Both rules have 60-day comment windows, closing on May 3. An optional template has been released by ONC for comments submission. That template can be found here.

AIRA has put together a schedule to gather comments:

  • March 29, 2019: Comments were due from AIRA community
  • April 8, 2019, 3 p.m. ET: Town Hall to review comments and discuss rule: (register here)
  • April 10, 2019: Draft comments shared with AIRA community
  • April 17, 2019: Edits on draft comments due back to AIRA
  • April 22, 2019: Final comments shared with AIRA community to leverage in submitting their own jurisdictional comments
  • May 3, 2019: All comments due to CMS and ONC

Do you have additional questions on the NPRMs or the process? Please contact Mary Beth Kurilo. Thank you for joining with us to contribute to the AIRA comments and to echo these comments in submissions from your own jurisdiction


AART Clinics at AIRA National Meeting – Sign Up Today

AART clinic signups are happening now! When you register to attend the AIRA National Meeting, you will have an opportunity to select a time slot for an AART clinic. Please coordinate with your colleagues to choose an appointment that works best for all of you, as one session will be offered for each IIS (IIS vendor-only sessions available upon request).

Already registered for the AIRA National Meeting? Click here to register for an AART clinic.

This is an opportunity to receive one-on-one feedback with AIRA technical staff. The entire IIS team, including your vendor representatives, is encouraged to attend a 30-minute clinic to learn how to use AART assessment reports to better understand how to align with national standards and inform planning. This is also your opportunity to get specific questions or challenges answered by AIRA technical staff to help prioritize and move forward with IIS enhancements.

Please contact Tracy Little for more information.


Recent Information Requests Added to the AIRA Repository

A recent Information Request regarding Infinite Campus software has been added to the AIRA repository and can be found by using the “Information Requests” filter. Information Requests are viewable only by individual members and individuals affiliated with member and partner organizations. Just log in to view these valuable resources! If you have any questions, please email membership coordinator Amanda Branham.


Steering Committee Updates: March Recap

Assessment Steering Committee

  • The committee met on March 19 and received an update on steering committee sponsored projects: the coverage/needs assessment project and the patient status project.
  • Updates were also given on the Measurement and Improvement Initiative, Functional Standards Assessment Tool, Message Quality Evaluator project, and the data at rest project.

Education Steering Committee

  • The Education Steering Committee (ESC) met on March 20, and the Public Health Informatics Institute provided information on its upcoming training project and eight-week course.
  • The March edition of SnapShots was released.
  • The committee also was updated on 2019 National Meeting planning.
  • The ESC has distributed the Education Survey and is reviewing the 2019 Education Plan.
  • The committee is hosting a webinar on Wednesday, April 10 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET to introduce the CDC Provider IIS Participation Community of Practice. You can register for the webinar here.
Standards & Interoperability Steering Committee
  • The Standards and Interoperability Steering Committee (SISC) met on March 13 and reviewed AIRA’s comment collection schedule for the ONC and CMS proposed rules.
  • The SISC discussed the challenge of re-querying after a multi-match as well as the inclusion of immune globulins in the CVX code set.
  • The SISC Technical Workgroup met on March 27 to discuss message header (MSH) sender fields and follow up on Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR).
MIROW Steering Committee
  • The Modeling of Immunization Registry Operations Workgroup (MIROW) Steering Committee (SC) met on March 21 and discussed the development of the Business Continuity Guide and the status of the MIROW subgroup projects.
  • 2018–19 Business Continuity Guide: In April, the first round of feedback will be gathered from the Business Continuity Workgroup. A call with the workgroup is scheduled for April 30.
  • Repackaging Workgroup: The repackaged patient-status guide is in the copyediting and design phase of the project.
  • Common Vocabulary Workgroup: The MIROW SC is reviewing the Common Vocabulary package, which includes two versions of terminology reports and language for the AIRA website.
  • Promotional Workgroup: Abstracts for the AMIA Symposium and the International Institute of Business Analysis Conference have been submitted. The presentation on business continuity was accepted for the AIRA National Meeting.

NOTE: Steering Committee minutes will capture only action items and decisions made moving forward. Recordings of the meetings can be sent directly upon request by emailing [email protected].