Policy, Standards, Material Development or Review

JSS reviewed and aligned existing BWC policies with the comprehensive policy scorecard and assisted new sites in developing their policies. JSS staff have received 29 policies from grantees. To date, 23 of these policies have been reviewed by the JSS team. For quality control, at least two staff members independently review each policy using a modified policy scorecard that measures the key requirements. JSS collaborates with subject matter experts to assist grantees who fall short on 1 to 5 elements.

The eHealth Exchange (eHx) Pilot Project succeeded last year in proof of concept but has been stalled, since then awaiting BJA to sign the DURSA agreement. That has been delayed due to the amount of fees needed along with the signing. In the interim, IJIS staff has spent a significant amount of time exploring eHx integration potential benefits in order to provide justification for BJA to fund it so it can go into production. If the DURSA agreement is signed, the Pilot Project shows much potential for a yearlong evaluation of eHx’s integration value.

During this reporting period, the PDMP and IJIS teams began discussions with representatives from BJA, CDC, eHealth Exchange, and three RxCheck Governance Board member states (California, Illinois, and Nebraska) on this project. At present, the Nebraska PDMP appears to be in the best position to proceed.

eHealth Exchange Integration – Pilot testing in UAT was successfully completed in 2023; however, the IJIS team is unable to move to production since the remaining work cannot be performed until the DURSA is signed by BJA. That said, there have been discussions between IJIS and TTAC teams and a few states to consider the feasibility of doing a state DURSA for a reduced fee to get the project into production and to demonstrate value. A call will be scheduled with Nebraska and the CDC in mid-July to explore this option.

eHealth Exchange Integration
No significant work on eHealth integration was completed during this period since the remaining work cannot be performed until the DURSA is signed by BJA. That said, discussions have been held with the IJIS and PDMP TTAC staffs and representatives from a few states regarding the feasibility of doing a state DURSA for a reduced fee to get the project into production and to demonstrate value. A call will be scheduled with Nebraska and the CDC in mid-July to explore this option.