Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 40 / Thursday, March 1, 2007 / Notices 9339 

RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES: 

Federal agencies and State and local 

law enforcement officials. 

[FR Doc. E7–3579 Filed 2–28–07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6820–EP–S 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Office of the National Coordinator for 

Health Information Technology; 

American Health Information 

Community Meeting 

ACTION: Change in meeting location to 

California. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces the 

12th meeting of the American Health 

Information Community in accordance 

with the Federal Advisory Committee 

Act (Pub. L. No. 92–463, 5 U.S.C., App.). 

The American Health Information 

Community will advise the Secretary 

and recommend specific actions to 

achieve a common interoperability 

framework for health information 

technology (IT). 

DATES: March 13, 2007, from 8 a.m. to 

1:30 p.m. (Pacific time). 

NEW ADDRESS: Computer History 

Museum, 1401 N. Shoreline Boulevard, 

Mountain View, California 94043. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Visit http:// 

www.hhs.gov/healthit/ahic.html. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

meeting will include presentations by 

the Quality Workgroup; Population 

Health/Clinical Care Connections 

Workgroup; Consumer Empowerment 

Workgroup; and Confidentiality, Privacy 

and Security Workgroup. It will also 

feature a panel presentation on Privacy 

and Security issues. 

The general public is invited to 

participate in person at the Computer 

History Museum in Mountain View, CA. 

Alternatively, the public may 

participate remotely via the Web. The 

Community meeting will be available on 

the NIH Web site at: http:// 

www.videocast.nih.gov/. 

If you have special needs for the 

meeting, please contact (202) 690–7151. 

Dated: February 21, 2007. 

Judith Sparrow, 

Director, American Health Information 

Community, Office of Programs and 

Coordination, Office of the National 

Coordinator for Health Information 

Technology. 

[FR Doc. 07–914 Filed 2–28–07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4150–24–M 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Notice of Availability: Secretarial 

Acceptance and Planned Recognition 

of Certain Healthcare Information 

Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) 

Interoperability Specifications for 

Health Information Technology 

AGENCY: Office of the National 

Coordinator for Health Information 

Technology (ONC), DHHS. 

Authority: Executive Order 13335 

(‘‘Incentives for the Use of Health 

Information Technology and 

Establishing the Position of the National 

Health Information Technology 

Coordinator’’), Executive Order 13410 

(‘‘Promoting Quality and Efficient 

Health Care in Federal Government 

Administered or Sponsored Health Care 

Programs’’), and Public Law 109–149 

(‘‘Departments of Labor, Health and 

Human Services, and Education, and 

Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 

2006’’). 

SUMMARY: By publication of this 

document, we are informing the public 

of the Secretary’s acceptance and 

planned recognition of certain 

Healthcare Information Technology 

Standards Panel (HITSP) 

Interoperability Specifications for health 

information technology as 

interoperability standards. The 

Secretary accepted these standards, 

version 1.2, in December of 2006, and 

intends to recognize them in the version 

2.0 form in December of 2007, 

presuming that changes from version 1.2 

to version 2.0 are minor and of a 

technical nature. This list of accepted 

HITSP standards is available at http:// 

www.hitsp.org and click on ‘‘HITSP 

Interoperability Specifications HERE’’

box. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Healthcare Information Technology 

Standards Panel (HITSP) was created in 

2005 to serve as a cooperative 

partnership between the public and 

private sectors for the purpose of 

achieving a widely accepted and useful 

set of standards specifically to enable 

and support widespread interoperability 

among healthcare software systems, as 

they will interact in a local, regional, 

and national health information 

network in the United States. 

Under a contract with the Department 

of Health and Human Services, the 

American National Standards Institute 

(ANSI) established HITSP, following a 

neutral and inclusive governance 

model. HITSP is a multi-stakeholder 

organization involving more than 265 

different healthcare industry 

organizations whose activities on these 

Interoperability Specifications were 

supported by more than 12,000 

volunteer hours of effort. On October 31, 

2006, HITSP presented three sets of 

‘‘Interoperability Specifications’’ to the 

American Health Information 

Community (AHIC). The 

Interoperability Specifications were 

developed to advance the national 

agenda for secure, interoperable health 

information systems. 

The AHIC is a Federal Advisory 

Committee Act (FACA) advisory body, 

chartered in 2005 to make 

recommendations to the Secretary on 

methods for accelerating the 

development and adoption of health 

information technology. At the October 

31, 2006, AHIC meeting, the members 

discussed the first three sets of health 

data and technical standards. Following 

that discussion, the AHIC reached 

consensus and recommended that the 

Interoperability Specifications be 

recognized by the Secretary. 

We recognize that certain legal 

obligations may flow from the 

recognition of these Interoperability 

Specifications. First, pursuant to 

Executive Order 13410 (EO 13410) 

dated August 22, 2006, recognition of 

Interoperability Specifications would 

require each Federal health agency, as it 

implements, acquires, or upgrades 

health information technology systems 

used for the direct exchange of health 

information between agencies and with 

non-Federal entities, to ‘‘utilize, where 

available, health information technology 

systems and products that meet 

recognized interoperability standards.’’

Therefore, Federal agencies would be 

required to properly consider health 

information technology systems and 

products that comply with these 

Interoperability Specifications when 

purchasing, implementing, or upgrading 

such items. Similarly, the EO 13410 

directs Federal agencies to contractually 

require, to the extent permitted by law, 

certain entities with whom they do 

business, to use, where available, health 

information technology systems and 

products that meet recognized 

interoperability standards. 

In addition, the regulations 

promulgated on August 8, 2006 (see 71 

FR 45140 and 71 FR 45110) established 

exceptions and safe harbors to the 

physician self-referral law and the antikickback statute, respectively, for 

certain arrangements involving the 

donation of electronic prescribing and 

electronic health records (EHR) 

technology and services. The EHR 

exception and safe harbor require that 

the software be ‘‘interoperable’’ as 

defined in the regulations. The rules 

also provide that certain software will 


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