Single Source Procurement: Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY)

Governor Cuomo's Executive Budget, §15. Subdivision 6 of section 2807-t of the Public Health Law, as added by chapter 639 of the laws of 1996, was amended in 2014 to establish for the purpose of funding the SHIN-NY. With funds made available through the State and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Office of the State Comptroller provided approval on September 10, 2014, for 10 sole-source grant contracts with Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs). The remaining RHIOs have since undergone a certification process completed by an independent third party (via a contract with KPMG US LLP) by conducting a detailed review and deeming them Qualified Entities (QEs). The enacted state fiscal year 2017-2018 budget includes $30,000,000 to be awarded to these QEs as well as a separate state designated entity. The distribution of these monies is based off the historical distribution and utilization from previous contracts, with small differences due to disparities in the status of implementation of current projects. The most recent CMS Implementation Advance Planning Document (iAPD) approval allows new funding to be available beginning October 1, 2016.

For SFY 2017-2018 budgets have remained level due to the completion of some activities and addition of new deliverables. All things equal, adjusting for inflation indicates that these budgets should have contained moderate increases when compared to prior fiscal years. However, the budget for April 1, 2017 – March 31, 2018 is a very slight decrease per annum when comparing to previous approvals for this project. The new deliverables being added to the scope are much more technologically advanced than the deliverables that are being removed from the scope, which bolsters our opinion that NYS is receiving significant cost savings. Additionally, as the demand for health information technology services is drastically increasing nation-wide, we would expect at least a minimal increase in cost passed along to the state, which is not the case in this situation.

The addition of the deliverable, "enabling quality measurement," is a cost-saving measure in and of itself. This will allow NYS to obtain data that will better predict outcomes and therefore lead to the implementation of cost saving measures elsewhere in the Department of Health and across NYS. This may also decrease the costs of some data validation and verification costs incurred elsewhere in the Department of Health.

Procurement / Program Name	Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY)
Contractor Name(s)	Multiple - Please see attached.
Contract Period	4/1/2017 – 3/31/2018
Contract Number(s)	Multiple - Please see attached.