Sign Posts on the Journey to HIEs
Only he that has traveled the road knows where the holes are deep - Chinese proverb
HHS Grant Awards to Advance Meaningful Use of HIT
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis have announced a total of nearly $1 billion in Recovery Act awards to help health care providers advance the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology (IT) and train workers for the health care jobs of the future. The awards will help make health IT available to over 100,000 hospitals and primary care physicians by 2014 and train thousands of people for careers in health care and information technology. This Recovery Act investment will help grow the emerging health IT industry which is expected to support tens of thousands of jobs ranging from nurses and pharmacy techs to IT technicians and trainers.
The over $750 million in HHS grant awards Secretary Sebelius announced are part of a federal initiative to build capacity to enable widespread meaningful use of health IT. This assistance at the state and regional level will facilitate health care providers' efforts to adopt and use electronic health records (EHRs) in a meaningful manner that has the potential to improve the quality and efficiency of health care for all Americans. Of the over $750 million investment, $386 million will go to 40 states and qualified State Designated Entities (SDEs) to facilitate health information exchange (HIE) at the state level, while $375 million will go to an initial 32 non-profit organizations to support the development of regional extension centers (RECs) that will aid health professionals as they work to implement and use health information technology - with additional HIE and REC awards to be announced in the near future. RECs are expected to provide outreach and support services to at least 100,000 primary care providers and hospitals within two years.
First Cooperative Agreement Awards Take Center Stage
ED. NOTE: Another installment on the road to EHR adoption. In this edition, we report on updates posted by Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
Dr. David Blumenthal announced the first cooperative agreement awards authorized by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. The announcement was made on February 12, 2010. One set of awards provides $386 million to 40 States and qualified State-Designated Entities to rapidly build capacity for exchanging health information across the health care system both within and between states through the State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program. The other awards provide $375 million to create 32 Regional Extension Centers (RECs) that will support the efforts of health professionals, starting with priority primary care providers, to become meaningful users of electronic health records (EHRs). Additional awards will be made in both programs over the coming weeks.
As part of the State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program, states will be expected to play a leadership role in achieving HIE to meet health reform goals. The funds awarded will be used to establish and implement plans for statewide HIE by creating the appropriate governance, policies, and technical services required to support HIE.
The awards will also strongly encourage states to consider participating in the Nationwide Health Information Network as an approach to HIE. This would create a pathway toward seamless, nationwide health information exchange.
While the State HIE awards are intended to strengthen capacity for health information exchanges, the Health Information Technology Extension Program awards will establish RECs to deliver direct outreach, education, and technical assistance services to health care providers in their regions. Each REC will focus most intensively on the physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners who work as part of individual and small group primary care practices, as well as those who dedicate themselves to providing health care to the underserved. Primary care providers in small practices provide the great majority of such services in the U.S. but have limited resources to implement, meaningfully use, and maintain EHR systems. On-site technical assistance for these priority primary care providers will be a key service offered by the RECs. RECs will assist providers who have not adopted EHRs, as well as those who have but need help progressing to meaningful use. RECs will also help providers keep health information private and secure.