HHS Announces $162 Million More in ARRA Funding to Advance HIT

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced awards to help states facilitate health information exchange (HIE) and advance HIT.Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), these awards are part of the $2 billion effort to achieve widespread meaningful use of HIT and provide use of an EHR by every citizen by 2014.Every state and eligible territory has now been awarded funds under this program.

The HIE awards provide approximately $162 million to 16 states and qualified state designated entities (SDEs) to facilitate nonproprietary HIE that adheres to national standards.HIE is critical to enabling care coordination and improving the quality and efficiency of healthcare.

These cooperative agreements were awarded under the authority of Title XIII of ARRA, the HITECH Act, which amends Title XXX of the Public Health Service Act by adding Section 3013, State Grants to Promote Health Information Technology. Section 3013 provides for the awarding of competitive grants to promote HIT. On February 12, HHS awarded $385 million to 40 states and SDEs.These awards announced complete the awarding of cooperative agreements funded by this program. A listing of the state HIE competitive agreements are as follows:

• Agency of Health Care Administration (Fla.): $20,738,582
• The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: $9,313,924
• New Jersey Health Care Facilities Financing Authority: $11,408,594
• South Carolina Department of Health & Human Services: $9,576,408
• Iowa Department of Public Health: $8,375,000
• Idaho Health Data Exchange: $5,940,500
• State of North Dakota, Information Technology Department: $5,343,733
• State of Alaska: $4,963,063
• Nebraska Department of Administrative Services: $6,837,180
• South Dakota Department of Health: $6,081,750
• Department of Public Health, State of Conn.: $7,297,930
• State of Mississippi: $10,387,000
• Indiana Health Information Technology, Inc.: $10,300,000
• HealthShare Montana: $5,767,926
• Texas Health and Human Services Commission: $28,810,208
• Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum: $10,583,000

Source: Health and Human Services