Section 5. (a) The council shall approve all expenditures from the Massachusetts Health Information Exchange Fund established under section 10. The council, in consultation with the executive office and institute, shall prepare and annually update a statewide health information exchange implementation plan. The plan shall contain a budget for the application of funds from the Massachusetts Health Information Exchange Fund.

(b) Components of the plan, as updated, shall be community-based and shall assess a municipality's or region's readiness to implement an interoperable electronic health information exchange within the referral market for a defined patient population.

(c) The plan as updated shall: (i) allow seamless, secure electronic exchange of health information among health care providers, health plans and other authorized users; (ii) provide consumers with secure, electronic access to their own health information; (iii) meet all applicable federal and state privacy and security requirements, including requirements imposed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, P.L. 104–191, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, P.L. 111–5, 42 C.F.R. §§ 2.11 et seq. and 45 C.F.R. §§ 160, 162, 164 and 170.; (iv) establish a method by which patients may choose which of their health care providers may disseminate their individually identifiable information; (v) provide public health reporting capability as required under state law; and (vi) allow reporting of health information other than identifiable patient health information for purposes of such activities as the executive office may consider necessary.

(d) The plan as updated shall be consistent with the mandatory compliance date for implementation of the health information exchange under section 7 and all other requirements of this chapter. Each such plan shall be consistent with the statewide electronic health records plan developed by the institute under subsection (c) of section 6D of of chapter 40J.