HHS Announces New Health IT Demo Grants
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Wednesday announced her department will be providing $235 million to support a new initiative aimed at accelerating and demonstrating the ability of health information technology to improve local health care systems and enhance the performance of their health care providers. The "Beacon Community Program" will provide $220 million in grants to 15 communities to build and strengthen health IT infrastructure, including the inclusion of strong privacy and security measures to protect the exchange of data. In addition, $15 million will be provided to communities for technical assistance and to help them evaluate the program's success. The funding will come from the $19 billion in health IT money included in the economic stimulus package enacted in February.
"The Beacon Community Program is a critical step forward as we work to expand the use of health information technology in hospitals and doctor's offices across the country," Sebelius said in a statement.
Under the program, cooperative agreements will be awarded to 15 qualified nonprofit groups or government entities representing "diverse" geographic areas such as rural and underserved areas. Groups hoping to qualify must build off of existing health IT infrastructure and show how they will produce cost and health care savings; show rates of electronic health record adoptions "significantly higher" than national estimates; and coordinate with the department's Health IT office to "develop and disseminate best practices for adoption and meaningful use of [electronic health records] to support national goals for widespread use of health IT."
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