Grant Awards to Help Make Health IT Available to Over 100,000 Health Providers by 2014, Support Tens of Thousands of Jobs Nationwide
WASHINGTON, DC – Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis today announced a total of nearly $1 billion in Recovery Act awards to help health care providers advance the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology (IT) and train workers for the health care jobs of the future. The awards will help make health IT available to over 100,000 hospitals and primary care physicians by 2014 and train thousands of people for careers in health care and information technology. This Recovery Act investment will help grow the emerging health IT industry which is expected to support tens of thousands of jobs ranging from nurses and pharmacy techs to IT technicians and trainers.
The over $750 million in HHS grant awards Secretary Sebelius announced today are part of a federal initiative to build capacity to enable widespread meaningful use of health IT. This assistance at the state and regional level will facilitate health care providers’ efforts to adopt and use electronic health records (EHRs) in a meaningful manner that has the potential to improve the quality and efficiency of health care for all Americans. Of the over $750 million investment, $386 million will go to 40 states and qualified State Designated Entities (SDEs) to facilitate health information exchange (HIE) at the state level, while $375 million will go to an initial 32 non-profit organizations to support the development of regional extension centers (RECs) that will aid health professionals as they work to implement and use health information technology – with additional HIE and REC awards to be announced in the near future. RECs are expected to provide outreach and support services to at least 100,000 primary care providers and hospitals within two years.
"Health information technology can make our health care system more efficient and improve the quality of care we all receive," said Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. "These grant awards, the first of their kind, will help develop our electronic infrastructure and give doctors and other health care providers the support they need as they adopt this powerful technology."
The more than $225 million in DOL grant awards Secretary Solis announced will be used to train 15,000 people in job skills needed to access careers in health care, IT and other high growth fields. Through existing partnerships with local employers, the recipients of these grants have already identified roughly 10,000 job openings for skilled workers that likely will become available in the next two years in areas like nursing, pharmacy technology and information technology. The grants will fund 55 separate training programs in 30 states to help train people for secure, well-paid health jobs and meet the growing employment demand for health workers. Employment services will be available via the Department of Labor’s local One Stop Career Centers, and training will be offered at community colleges and other local education providers.
“The Recovery Act’s investments are making a positive difference in the lives of America’s working families,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “The investments announced today will ensure thousands of workers across the nation can receive high-quality training and employment services, which will lead to good jobs in healthcare and other industries offering career-track employment and good pay and benefits.”
The HHS and DOL awards are part of an overall $100 billion investment in science, innovation and technology the Administration is making through the Recovery Act to spur domestic job creation in growing industries and lay a long-term foundation for economic growth. In addition to the 10,000 jobs the DOL grantees expect to fill with freshly trained workers, the health IT extension centers are expected to hire over 3,000 technology workers nationwide in the months ahead. Overall, the Administration investments in health IT and training will help significantly expand an emerging industry expected to support tens of thousands of secure, well-paid jobs nationwide.
A complete listing of the state HIE, REC and job training grant recipients is as follows: State HIE Awards:
State HIE AwardeeAward AmountAlabama Medicaid Agency$ 10,564,789Arizona Governor’s Office of Economic Recovery$ 9,377,000Arkansas Dept of Finance and Administration$ 7,909,401California Health and Human Services Agency$ 38,752,536Colorado Regional Health Information Organization$ 9,175,777Delaware Health Information Network$ 4,680,284Government of the District of Columbia$ 5,189,709Georgia Department of Community Health$ 13,003,003Office of the Governor (Guam)$ 1,600,000The Hawaii Health Information Exchange$ 5,602,318Illinois Department of Health care and Family Services$ 18,837,639Kansas Health Information Exchange Project$ 9,010,066Cabinet for Health and Family Services (Kentucky)$ 9,750,000State of Maine/Governor’s Office of Health Policy & Finance$ 6,599,401Massachusetts Technology Park Corporation$ 10,599,719Michigan Department of Health$ 14,993,085Minnesota Department of Health$ 9,622,000Missouri Depart of Social Services$ 13,765,040Nevada Department of Health and Human Services$ 6,133,426New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services$ 5,457,856Lovelace Clinic Foundation, New Mexico$ 7,070,441New York eHealth Collaborative Inc.$ 22,364,782Commonwealth of the NMI, Department of Public Health$ 800,000North Carolina Department of State Treasurer$ 12,950,860Ohio Health Information Partnership LLC$ 14,872,199Oklahoma Health Care Authority$ 8,883,741Pacific Ecommerce Development Corporation (American Samoa)$ 600,000State of Oregon$ 8,579,992Governor’s Office of Health Care Reform Commonwealth of Pennsylvania$ 17,140,446Oticina del Gobernador La Fortaeza (Puerto Rico)$ 7,770,980Rhode Island Quality Institute$ 5,280,000State of Tennessee$ 11,664,580Utah Department of Health$ 6,296,705Vermont Department of Human Services$ 5,034,328Virgin Islands Department of Health$ 1,000,000Virginia Department of Health$ 11,613,537Health Care Authority (Washington)$ 11,300,000West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources$ 7,819,000Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services$ 9,441,000Office of the Governor (Wyoming)$ 4,873,000Total Award Amount$ 385,978,640Regional Extension Center Awards:
RECs AwardeeAward AmountAltarum Institute, Michigan$ 19,619,990Arkansas Foundation For Medical Care$ 7,400,000CIMRO of Nebraska$ 6,647,371Colorado RHIO$ 12,475,000District of Columbia Primary Care Association$ 5,488,437Fund for Public Health New York$ 21,754,010Greater Cincinnati HealthBridge (Ohio-Kentucky)$ 9,738,000Health Choice Network, Inc.,Florida$ 8,500,000HealthInsight, Utah-Nevada$ 6,917,783Iowa IFMC$ 5,508,019Kansas Foundation for Medical Care Inc.$ 7,000,000Key Health Alliance (Stratis Health), Minnesota – North Dakota$ 19,000,000Lovelace Clinic, New Mexico$ 6,175,000Massachusetts Technology Park Cooperation$ 13,433,107MetaStar, Inc, Wisconsin$ 9,125,000Morehouse School of Medicine, Inc., Georgia$ 19,521,542New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC)$ 26,534,999University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill$ 13,569,169Northern California Regional Extension Center$ 17,286,081Northern Illinois University$ 7,546,000Northwestern University$ 7,649,533OCHIN Inc. (Primary), Oregon$ 13,201,499Ohio Health Information Partnership$ 28,500,000Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality, Inc.$ 5,331,685Purdue University$ 12,000,000Qsource (Tennessee)$ 7,256,155Qualis Health, Washington – Idaho$ 12,846,482Rhode Island Quality Institute$ 6,000,000Southern California Regional Extension Center$ 13,961,339Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc.$ 6,762,080VHQC and the Center for Innovative Technology, for The Virginia Consortium$ 12,425,000West Virginia Health Improvement Institute Inc.$ 6,000,000Total Award Amount$ 375,173,281Job Training Awards:
Healthcare / High Growth Grant RecipientAward AmountCalhoun Community College$3,470,830Mid-South Community College$3,391,053South Arkansas Community College$3,520,612Kern Community College District (KCCD)$2,768,572Los Rios Community College District$4,988,561Mt. San Antonio Community College District$2,239,714San Diego State University Research Foundation$4,953,575San Jose State University Research Foundation$5,000,000San Bernardino Community College District$4,260,863Youth Policy Institute$3,623,473Spanish Speaking Unity Council$3,559,139Otero Junior College$4,999,350National Council of La Raza$3,457,516Providence Health Foundation of Providence Hospital$4,953,999DeKalb Technical College (DTC)$2,043,859Governors State University$4,994,686Indianapolis Private Industry Council, Inc.$4,885,812Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana$5,000,000Iowa Workforce Development$3,403,164Maysville Community and Technical College$2,007,637Louisiana Technical College, Greater Acadiana Region 4$4,859,040Southern University at Shreveport$4,296,308Maine Department of Labor$4,892,213The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC)$4,928,654Macomb Community College$4,971,642American Indian Opportunities Industrialization Center$5,000,000Northland Community and Technical College$4,996,844MN State Colleges & Universities DBA Pine Technical College$4,230,950South Central College$4,506,101The Montgomery Institute$4,519,625Full Employment Council$4,998,344Crowder College$3,576,760Maryville University – St. Louis$4,699,354University of New Hampshire$2,944,732Passaic County Community College$4,475,041Fulton Montgomery Community College (FMCC)$2,865,657Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC)$3,382,200University Behavioral Associates, Inc.$5,000,000Workforce Investment Board of Herkimer, Madison, and Oneida Counties$2,700,096Goodwill Industries, Inc., Serving E. Neb and SW Iowa$2,007,846Nevada Cancer Institute$3,262,676Berea Children’s Home4,927,843BioOhio$5,000,000Cincinnati State Technical and Community College$4,935,132Columbus State Community College$4,605,303Enterprise for Employment and Education$2,373,073Trident Technical College$2,624,532Florence-Darlington Technical College (FDTC)$4,346,351The University of South Dakota$5,000,000Centerstone of Tennessee, Inc.$5,000,000North Central Texas College$4,150,005San Jacinto Community College District$4,722,919The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB)$4,655,799Shenandoah Valley Workforce Investment Board, Inc. (SVWIB)$4,951,991Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board$5,000,000Total$226,929,446Additional information about the state HIE and RECs may be found at http://HealthIT.HHS.gov/statehie and http://healthit.hhs.gov/extensionprogram.
Information about other health IT programs funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 can be found here: http://HealthIT.HHS.gov
Information about Healthcare/High Growth Grants, and other DOL training programs is available at http://www.doleta.gov/.
For more information about the Recovery Act, please visit: www.hhs.gov/recovery, www.dol.gov/recovery, and www.recovery.gov.