Proposed Health Data Utility Faces Scrutiny as Senators Question $1.8M Cost and Surcharge Hike

Lawmakers are weighing whether to create a new governing body to oversee and sustain the Virgin Islands’ health data infrastructure, as Bill 36-0228 advances through the 36th Legislature amid support from healthcare stakeholders and concerns from senators about cost, governance, and funding sources.

The measure, heard Monday in the Committee of the Whole, would establish the Virgin Islands Health Data Utility (HDU), an entity designed to oversee and operate a territory-wide Health Information Exchange (HIE). According to testimony, the bill seeks to modernize data sharing across individual practices, institutional healthcare settings, and social service organizations by advancing data sharing infrastructure, simplifying reporting, enhancing data visualization, and improving traditional clinical data exchange.

Michelle Francis, executive director of the Office of Health Information Technology (OHIT) in the Office of the Governor, described the legislation as “straightforward and transformational.”

Bill 36-0228, she said, would create the HDU and provide an “independent body the governance, legal authority, and funding structure” needed to “move from fragmented information silos to a coordinated, territory-wide health data backbone.”

Ms. Francis argued that the HDU is necessary to govern the existing Health Information Exchange, which currently operates on a limited scale in the territory. The HIE is intended to streamline the transfer of medical information between healthcare providers. She cited examples of patients having to recall details of prior medical visits, list medications from memory, or repeat lab work when records cannot be located.