FHA FAQs

Federal Enterprise Architecture: Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Federal Health Architecture?
What is FHA's vision?
Who participates in the FHA?
What need is FHA addressing?
What has FHA accomplished so far?
What are some of FHA’s major activities?
How will FHA activities ultimately affect citizens?
How can I contact or find out more about FHA?

What is the Federal Health Architecture?
FHA is an E-Government Line of Business initiative established in response to the President’s Management Agenda, which calls for greater efficiency and effectiveness in government operations. FHA has responsibility for leveraging federal healthcare expertise, supporting federal activities in the development of standards and ensuring that agencies can seamlessly exchange health data with each other, with other levels of government (state, local and tribal), and with private-sector healthcare organizations. FHA contributes to the President’s health IT plan by giving input on national health IT solutions and facilitating collaboration among agencies; offering guidance for adopting of data-exchange standards; and assuring accountability for health IT programs in the government that advance the goal of interoperability.

What is FHA's vision?
FHA’s vision is a federal health IT environment that is interoperable with other levels of government and the private sector and supports the President’s health IT plan to improve care, increase efficiency and enhance population health.

Who participates in the FHA?
FHA is a partnership among federal agencies, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and the Office of Management Budget (OMB). The Department of Health and Human Services serves as the managing partner, with the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs acting as lead partners and funding providers for the program. Approximately 20 federal agencies contribute expertise to FHA activities, including the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, Department of State, Social Security Administration, Department of Labor, Office of Personnel Management, Department of Justice, National Science Foundation, Department of Treasury, U.S. Agency for International Development and Small Business Administration.

What need is FHA addressing?
FHA offers a forum for federal agencies to collaborate on health IT efforts. It also promotes federal perspective on standards harmonization, compliance certification, nationwide health information network architecture, security and privacy and electronic health records adoption. FHA supplies federal input to the President’s health IT plan, assists agencies in executing new programs identified by the American Health Information Community (AHIC) – the federal advisory body on health IT – and supports accountability for health IT investments through OMB.

What has FHA accomplished so far?
FHA has acted to make sure that agencies adopt standards-based health IT systems. Accomplishments include:

• FHA provided early release of CONNECT for participation in the NHIN demonstration at the September 23, 2008 AHIC meeting.
• The Consolidated Health Informatics Initiative, a component of FHA, has promulgated more than 20 standards for health IT, including medical vocabularies, messaging, electronic health records and healthcare imaging.
• FHA defined five federal health-service domains: access to care, population health and consumer safety, healthcare administration, healthcare delivery services and healthcare research and practitioner education. FHA members are developing common processes and standards for these domains to make sure agencies have a uniform and comprehensive approach to health information exchange.
• FHA’s Food Safety Working Group defined improved business processes to protect the nation’s food supplies.
• FHA organized federal input into the health IT standards harmonization and Nationwide Health Information Network processes.
• FHA coordinated federal input on interoperability specifications and standards-gap analysis for the Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP).

What are some of FHA’s major activities?
Through collaboration with its federal partners, FHA developed a five-step process to help agencies select the appropriate solutions to meet their healthcare-related business priorities. Each of the steps is supported by specific FHA initiatives to create products to advance the National Health IT Agenda.

• Identify needs: The Federal Business Priorities for 2009 / 2010 to ensure federal agencies mission priorities are documented as business priorities and incorporated into the National Health IT Agenda.  The Federal Health IT SDO Participation Plan helps coordinate federal participation within health industry standards development organizations (SDOs).
• Architect solutions: The Federal Health Information Sharing Environment (FHISE) Framework links federal health mandates and strategies with health IT business requirements, national interoperability standards and services, and IT systems and investments.  The “Federal Security Strategy for HIE,” now in the planning process, incorporates key drivers such as FISMA, E-authentication and HIPAA requirements.
• Plan investments:  The Federal Health Investment Planning & Reporting Guide provides agencies with information about health IT solutions that align to national interoperability guidelines and standards.
• Implement solutions:  The “Feds CONNECT” solution makes possible for agencies to exchange health information securely with their stakeholders and implement the information exchange services that will enable agencies to connect their existing health information systems to the NHIN.
• Report Progress:  The FHA Progress Reporting Guide provides direction regarding health information reporting requirements and communicates the associated milestones, timelines, processes and tools.

How will FHA activities ultimately affect citizens?
The goal for effective federal use of health IT is to improve healthcare delivery for citizens. The nation’s ability to serve those most in need during emergencies will be greatly improved if first responders and healthcare providers have access to electronic health records for displaced citizens. America’s military can also benefit from access to information for active service personnel and veterans. Finally, the burden on private-sector healthcare organizations will be reduced by simplifying complex requirements for health-related communication with federal agencies. Federal agencies will be empowered to plan more efficiently for health IT investments, exchange critical health data and contain rising costs. FHA’s contributions will help strengthen federal health IT activities in support of the President’s health IT plan to enable better care, increase efficiency and improve population health.

How can I contact or find out more about FHA?
Contact the FHA Program Management Office at:

Main phone: (202) 205-8614

E-mail: fha@hhs.gov

Visit www.hhs.gov/fedhealtharch