First Lady Michelle Obama was the first to announce a broad and
sweeping grants program for community health centers (CHCs) this week. The
Recovery Act Capital Improvement Program will dole out over $850 million
dollars in funding to CHCs nationwide that demonstrate a need for capital
improvement projects such as new equipment, infrastructure, and most
importantly, the adoption and implementation of electronic health records.
Over 1,500 community health centers in total will receive funding—of those,
400 will use funds specifically for EHRs. The first lady notes that these
improvements will touch the lives of over 2.8 million patients that rely on
CHCs for primary care. Mrs. Obama states that these “grants
will mean new diagnostic equipment, renovation of facilities that need repair,
expanding computer centers to help manage electronic medical records, adding on
new staff [and] expanding programs that work.” This funding is the boost that CHCs need in order to dive into the EHR
mania. Otherwise, the community centers lack the resources to engage in the transfer from
paper to digital.
The awards are the third release of funds since the passage
of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). This wave of funding was
highly anticipated. The recovery act's core mission is to provide dollars for technology
infrastructure needs, and the act breaks it out into three waves: 1)
formula funding for federally qualified health centers or FQHCs; 2) competitive
funding for CHCs; and 3) competitive funding for health information technology
projects for CHCs.
The combined waves total more than $1.5 billion
in community health center investment. The first two waves focused on either creating new
CHCs or expanding and supporting existing CHCs that demonstrated need for
infrastructure support as their rolls increase in the lousy economy. The third wave is forward looking and demonstrates the willingness
and commitment of the Obama Administration to HIT and to EHRs, more
specifically. So, yes, it’s real health information technology for CHCs—long
neglected by many, they now have their brief moment in the spotlight.
Also Interesting:
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[+} What’s inside the stimulus package for healthcare?
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