5 minute read

OCTOBER 9, 2024

Please join us for the upcoming AIRA Members and Partners (M&P) meeting on Monday, October 21, from 2 to 3 p.m. ET. AIRA M&P quarterly meetings provide important updates from AIRA and partner organizations and are a great way to get a high-level overview of the activities going on within the IIS and immunization community. Members and Partners meetings are held on Zoom.

The registration link will automatically take you to Zoom.

We hope you can join us. Recordings of past meetings can be found in the AIRA Repository.

Join us for the next AIRA Discovery Session on Monday, October 28, from 4 to 5 p.m. ET to hear about lessons learned on immunization data exchange after 20 million immunization messages were exchanged. The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been exchanging, tracking, and analyzing immunization messages to understand the reasons behind data exchange successes and failures. This presentation will share VA’s findings and will allow the audience to hear from the Ohio IIS, which has the highest data exchange success rate with VA. There will be time for questions and answers at the end of the webinar.

Once you have registered, you will receive a confirmation email with links to add the meeting to your calendar.

If you’re unable to attend, this session will be recorded and available in the AIRA Repository. We hope you’ll join us on October 28!

Our next edition of SnapShots will be published in December, and we would love to feature your work! If you or a colleague are working on something you would like to share with the IIS community, submit an article for consideration by Monday, October 14. To submit an article for consideration, simply email your content to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Gabriella Wagoner at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Remember, to be considered for inclusion, your content must relate to a jurisdiction or have a jurisdiction as a co-author.

Access to health information is an important tool for Public Health Authorities (PHAs) and their delegates to support core public health services including, but not limited to, assessing and monitoring population health, and investigating, diagnosing, and addressing health hazards and root causes. Use cases described in the recently released Public Health Exchange Purpose Implementation SOP allow PHAs to identify disease trends, track and monitor outbreaks, and prevent and control future outbreaks.

Join experts from the TEFCA Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE) and the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ASTP/ONC) on October 11, from 11 a.m. to noon ET for an informative webinar, where they’ll cover the essentials of TEFCA Exchange and dive into the details of the Public Health Exchange Purpose Implementation SOP.

What you will learn:

• How TEFCA Exchange benefits both reporting providers and public health agencies by establishing a single set of rules and mechanisms for TEFCA Exchange
• In-depth insights into Electronic Case Reporting (eCR) and Electronic Laboratory Reporting (eLR)

This webinar will also offer a valuable opportunity for input from the public health community.

AIRA members can submit and review information requests—a circulation of questions to and answers from the community. To submit an information request to the IIS community, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with “Information Request” in the subject line.

Open Information Requests

• The Nevada State Immunization Program is looking for information (policies, guidance, lessons learned, etc.) on implementing a VFC vaccine “replacement model” with one or more enrolled locations. Specifically, they would like to learn how other jurisdictions manage this type of model in the IIS. How are clinics that use the replacement model instructed to document funding source and eligibility? Are manual (user interface) reporters handled any differently than HL7 (electronic submission) reporters? What challenges has the replacement model presented for IIS accountability? For reconciliation? Ordering? Have any jurisdictions enrolled a site that uses the replacement model for only one type of vaccine (such as HepB) but that administers other VFC vaccines in the traditional model?

   

  If you are willing to share, please reach out to Amanda Harris at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and copy This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by today, October 9, and don’t forget to include your contact information for follow-up.

   

• The Louisiana Department of Health is seeking information regarding HEDIS reporting service charges. They are currently charging 50 cents per record for their HEDIS reporting service. Because of the increasing cost in maintaining this effort, they are considering increasing the price to $1 per record. Before making that decision, they would like to know what other jurisdictions are charging for this service.

   

  If you are willing to share, please reach out to Quan Le at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and copy This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by today, October 9, and don’t forget to include your contact information for follow-up.
  
  

• The Virginia and North Dakota immunization programs are looking for information from other jurisdictions related to calculating cost allocations for Medicaid funding applications. 

  • If you have received Medicaid match funding in the past, can you please share details on how you determined/calculated cost allocations for the IAPD application (e.g., based on percentage of population in IIS on Medicaid, etc.)? Please provide as much detail as possible.  
  • Is your jurisdiction currently working on applying for Medicaid match funding to support your IIS? If yes, can you share any further details about funding levels and purposes for which you are applying?  

   

  If you are willing to share any relevant information, please send it to Christy Gray at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Molly Howell at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Wednesday, October 23.

Information requests are viewable only by individual members and individuals affiliated with member and partner organizations. Recent information requests can be found by using the “Information Requests” filter in the AIRA Repository. Just log in to view these valuable resources! If you have any questions, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Technical Advisory Bulletins (TABs) are intended to provide additional clarity on national specifications to support the interoperability of immunization information between systems. These documents build on and further clarify specifications in the HL7 v2.5.1 Implementation Guide (IG) for Immunization Messaging, Release 1.5 and Addendum, October 2018. Once published, IIS can enhance their HL7 interfaces to align with TABs.

To this end, AIRA’s Measurement and Improvement (M&I) program is updating specific test measures to align with published TAB expectations. These updates will expand the current criteria to ensure those IIS that implement these new TAB expectations pass M&I testing measures.

Starting in Q4 2024, which spans October through December, the following measures are being updated to expand the criteria for IIS to pass.

• Query Measure 5: Based on the Query Response Flexibility TAB, Measure 5 will be updated to allow for a Z31 (list of patients) as a valid response to a Request Evaluated Immunization History and Forecast (Z44 QBP).
• Data Quality Incoming/Ongoing (DQI) Measure 7 and 8: Based on the Additional “Unknown” Race and Ethnicity TAB, Measure 7 (Race) and 8 (Ethnicity) will be updated to allow for a value of “UNK” (Unknown) as a valid default value in an RSP when a patient does not have a valid race or ethnicity on file.

AIRA will also update published measures and tests documents for corresponding content areas, such as Query/Response and DQI. Please submit any questions you have to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or fill out the Technical Assistance Request form for assistance.

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