$1.2 Billion Slated for HITECH Priority Grant Programs [ Edited ]

[mmahon]

From an article over at the American Academy of Family Physicians:

"Nearly $1.2 billion soon will be available to help the nation's hospitals, physicians and other health care professionals purchase and use electronic health records, or EHRs, according to an Aug. 20 announcement from Vice President Joe Biden. Money from the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health, or HITECH, Act priority grant programs, which are funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, will start flowing in 2010." Full article here.

In a seperate press release:

"One set of grants will make available $598 million to establish approximately 70 Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers to assist hospitals and clinicians in evaluating, acquiring, implementing and achieving meaningful use of certified EHRs. Another grant program will provide $564 million to states and qualified state-designated entities to develop structures to share healthcare information in an emerging network of health information exchanges (HIEs) in support of the nationwide health information network (NHIN)."