How the Feds will spend the first $1.16 Billion on HIT

The best summary I have found is at Chilimarkresearch.com - Spigots are Opening: $1.16B for HIT in 2010

(Bold emphasis added is mine.)

$1.16B will be distributed in 2010 to address two priorities, setting up extension centers and helping states create RHIOs. Putting each of these initiatives right up front in the funding cycle makes a hell of a lot of sense to us.

"First, dedicating $598M to the Health Information Technology Extension Program (HITEP) for the establishment of some 70+ extension centers, as well as a national Health Information Technology Research Center (HITRC), which is separately funded at $50M, will put in place the needed infrastructure of technical advisers to assist physicians in adopting EHRs and insuring that their deployment will support meaningful use, well at least that is the plan, which is much easier said then done. We still wonder where the feds and these extension centers will find the necessary skilled staff to man these extension centers once this market begins to heat up.

Second, dedicating $598M to assist states in establishing RHIOs is logical, if not critical, if indeed we want to have true care coordination. Besides, if the feds are going to demand that one of the core precepts of meaningful use be information sharing, then it is the responsibility of the feds to facilitate building the infrastructure to make it happen. Nearly $600M being distributed to States or State Designated Entities (SDE) is quite a boat load of money to make this happen, hopefully it will be spent wisely and not result in more cobbled together RHIOs that live from one grant to the next and have no sustaining business model. Maybe they could make a condition of receiving a grant – a clear business plan that shows a self-supporting entity within say three years of go-live.

All in all quite a tall order considering most RHIOs have not gotten much further than distributing labs and test results. But really what choice does ONC and HHS have? Congress, in its infinite wisdom, has put into legislation that some $36B+ must be spent in a very short time period to get the healthcare sector into the digital age. The aggressive schedule put forth by this legislation leaves HHS with little choice but to charge ahead. Considering te circumstances, HHS/ONC are being about as thoughtful as one could expect. Let’s hope that when it comes to actually executing on these initiatives the measured approach taken to date continues."


Overall, I agree the announcements are better than I expected, and are even a nearly reasonable use of the initial funds. Hopefully, we will continue to see reason prevail.