Be Careful What You Ask For – Now Health Info Tech Needs to Come Through

On Friday Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced the government’s intention to release nearly $1 billion of funds from last year’s stimulus package to aid healthcare providers and promote the use of health information technology across the country. The funding will help expand the availability of health IT for more than 100,000 hospitals and primary care physicians by 2014 in addition to training many Americans for careers in information technology.

A critically important step for the country’s focus on healthcare information, the announcement will help continue to grow the industry across the country. The funds, which will be used at the state and local level, will encourage healthcare providers to adopt electronic health records. Of the $750 million in HHS funds, $386 million will be delivered to 40 states and qualified State Designated Entities (SDEs) to promote the expansion of health information exchange (HIE) initiatives at the state level.  Meanwhile $375 million will go to 32 non-profit organizations to support the creation of the government’s regional extension center (REC) program that will help healthcare workers as they implement HIT across the country.  The selection of organizations was a bit interesting.  For example, Goodwill Industries was one of the recipients.  The program mirrors the regional extension program of the Agriculture Department (with modifications) which for over a century has helped bring research and education to rural areas of the nation.  Additionally, $225 million in Department of Labor grants will be used to train 15,000 healthcare professionals for careers in health technology.   This is a needed boost to the HIT workforce supply.

The announcement is a shot in the arm which will potentially have a positive impact related to  development of the nation’s health information network.  Aside from the fact that the funding will promote job growth, it is a welcome step in the eyes of health professionals who have been advocating for greater use and sharing of information among the medical and healthcare community to promote enhanced quality, better service and reduce costs.  Now, we need to figure out how to connect this good work with the many vendors and other organizations which are committed to moving the agenda forward.

Kevin Fickenscher, MD

The views and opinions expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Dell Services or its affiliates.