The Health and Human Services Department today awarded grants totaling more than $760 million to jumpstart the delivery of programs and services that aim to get healthcare providers on the road to digitizing their practices.
The announcement of the health IT bonanza came the first day the federal government was open for business after back-to-back snowstorms had closed agencies and sidelined workers all week.
HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the award of $375 million to create 32 health IT regional extension centers to train and help providers adopt electronic health records systems and $386 million to 40 states to ramp up health information exchange systems.
Both sets of awards were provided for under the HITECH Act and aim to support physicians and hospitals to qualify for incentive payments by meeting tests for “meaningful use” of health IT.
The regional extension centers will assist healthcare organizations to computerize medical records and use the technology to improve care to patients. HHS plans to award another set of extension center grants in March to reach a total of 70 centers.
When complete, HHS health IT planners aim to have 100,000 hospitals and primary care physicians educated and equipped to handle the technical aspects of purchasing and deploying electronic health record systems and integrating them into their practices.
Dr. David Blumenthal, the national health IT coordinator, has said that the goal of the centers is to “get boots on the ground where doctors and hospitals and other health professionals live, helping them elbow to elbow to become meaningful users of electronic health records.”
The widespread use of health IT can make the healthcare system more efficient and improve the quality of care, said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
“These grant awards, the first of their kind, will help develop our electronic infrastructure and give doctors and other health care providers the support they need as they adopt this powerful technology,” she said.
Among the centers who receive grants, the Ohio Health Information Partnership received the highest amount, $28.5 million, followed by the New York eHealth Cooperative at $26.5 million. The Fund for Public Health New York was awarded $21.7 million. Also, the Greater Cincinnati HealthBridge, serving Ohio and Kentucky, received $9.7 million and Vermont Information Technology Leaders Inc. received $6.7 million.
Of the funds dedicated to building state health information exchange, the California Health and Human Services Agency received the highest amount, $38.7 million, followed by New York eHealth Collaborative with $22.3 million, and the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, with $18.8 million.
In addition to the HHS awards, Hilda Solis, secretary of the Labor Department, announced $225 million in grant awards to train 15,000 workers in healthcare and health IT. Those funds were also authorized by the HITECH Act.
Through partnerships with local employers, the recipients of these grants have already identified about 10,000 job openings for skilled workers that likely will become available in the next two years in areas like nursing, pharmacy technology and information technology, Solis said.
The health IT extension centers are expected to hire more than 3,000 IT workers nationwide during the months ahead, Solis said.
The list of awardees is online at https://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/02/20100212a.html
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