Healthcare IT Update

Chosen Communities to be ‘HIT’ with $220M in Grants

Beacon funding program to kick off when 130 applicants are chosen. Fifteen lucky communities will be awarded a total of about $220 million in grants for health IT infrastructure, national coordinator for health IT David Blumenthal, MD has announced. The grants will come from the Beacon Community program, which provides funding to communities to build and strengthen their HIT infrastructure and exchange capabilities. The chosen communities will have to “pay it forward” by achieving measurable improvements in health care quality, safety, efficiency, and population health — and then sharing lessons learned.

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Here’s Who Got the Latest $1 Billion in HIT Stimulus Funds

Want to know who’s getting those ARRA dollars? Here’s the list. If the feds are going to get providers anywhere close to their ambitious HIT implementation goals, we’re going to need a lot more HIT workers. That’s why the Department of Health & Human Services and Department of Labor are shelling out big bucks to train the next wave of ‘meaningful users’. The government has extended about $1 billion in ARRA grants to further develop health information technology (HIT), skills-building and education in the healthcare sector, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced recently.

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ARRA Grants: $80 Million for Community College HIT Programs

Application deadline is January 22, 2010. The feds understand that we’ll need legions of new HIT workers to implement national EHR goals, so they’re forking over $80 million in ARRA funds to train them at the community college level. Good news for health care vets who want to develop new HIT skills: The grant funds will support non-degree, community college programs that students can complete in about 6 months — which means you may have more options for HIT continuing education as you continue to work your day job. The programs can be live, online or a combination of the two. Who’s eligible to apply for a piece of the $80 million: “Any U.S. non-profit institution of higher learning currently engaged in providing healthcare IT training that is interested in drafting curriculum or establishing a consortium that includes community colleges may apply for the grants,” reports Healthcare IT News. What…

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CMS Begins to Distribute Millions Earmarked for EHRs

Get your electronic health record in place so you can benefit from government bonuses. Late this summer, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that the government would appropriate over a billion dollars in grants to help healthcare providers implement electronic health records (EHRs), and it didn’t take long for the first awards to be distributed. On Sept. 29, HHS announced that it had awarded $27.8 million to health center-controlled networks and large health centers to implement EHRs and other health information technology initiatives. The goal of the funding is to improve productivity, accuracy, and quality via the use of EHRs. “These funds to expand and upgrade electronic health records systems will make a huge difference for health centers struggling to provide health care to the growing number of people in need,” said Mary Wakefield, PhD, RN, administrator of HHS’s Health Resources and Service Administration, in a Sept. 29 statement.

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Need EHR Help? HHS Plans to Open 70 Regional Centers That Can Assist You

Kathleen Sebelius Plus: HHS officials give an ETA for their ‘meaningful use’ definition. Need a jump start to institute your electronic health record (EHR) system? The government plans to give the program a shot in the arm by injecting $1.2 billion in grants that will go toward helping healthcare providers implement EHRs. The grants will go toward two areas, said Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary, during an Aug. 20 conference call with members of the healthcare media. AUDIO: Is someone besides HHS helping you out with EHR? How to make sure well-intentioned EHR deals don’t run afoul of Stark. With health care attorney Wayne Miller. The first goal includes $598 million to fund about 70 regional centers. The centers will “support physicians and hospitals in the adoption and meaningful use of EHRs,” noted David Blumenthal, MD, CMS’s national coordinator for health information technology, during the call.

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