Dr. Thomas Tsang, medical director of meaningful use and quality at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, will become senior advisor to Hawaii’s governor on healthcare transformation, a new state initiative.
Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie named Tsang to help spearhead the state effort to develop innovative organization and delivery of healthcare services, including health IT adoption, payment reform and a primary care workforce.
The healthcare effort is designed to increase quality and reduce costs for the state’s employee healthcare system and Medicaid programs. It will also help to establish provisions of the health reform law. The transformation office will work with government agencies, providers, health plans and consumers.
At ONC, Tsang has advised on policies to put into practice meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) and assisted establishment of regional extension centers, which supply technical guidance to physicians to establish health IT.
[See also: CMS counts early EHR incentive adopters. ]
Beth Giesting, CEO of the Hawaii Primary Care Association, which supports the state’s 14 community health centers, will be the healthcare transformation coordinator, according to the governor’s announcement July 28.
Prior to his ONC position, Tsang worked at the House Ways and Means Committee as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation fellow on provisions of the health reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He also practiced internal medicine and was chief medical officer at the Charles Wang Community Health Center in New York City, where he led deployment of EHRs and advocated for use of informatics to help manage chronic care patients, according to his biography.
