Federal government awards nearly $1 billion in funds for health care IT, job training
Government agencies have awarded a total of nearly $1 billion in Recovery Act funds to train health care providers to better use information technology (IT), as well as to train future health care workers, said U.S. Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius and labor secretary Hilda Solis in a press release.
These awards will make health IT available to over 100,000 hospitals and primary care physicians by 2014 and will train thousands of people for careers in health care and IT. The Recovery Act investment is aimed at strengthening the burgeoning health IT industry, which is expected to support tens of thousands of jobs ranging from nurses and pharmacy techs to IT technicians and trainers.
Over $750 million in HHS grant awards are part of a federal initiative to foster widespread, meaningful use of health care IT, Sebelius said in the release. The assistance at the state and regional level will support health care providers’ efforts to utilize electronic health records in an efficient and meaningful manner. Of the over $750 million designated, $386 will go to 40 states and qualified state-designated entities to implement health information exchange at a state level, while $375 million will go to an initial 32 non-profit organizations to facilitate the development of regional extension centers. Additional awards for health information exchange and regional extension centers are expected to be announced in the near future, Sebelius and Solis said in the release