HHS Administers Cash Infusion

The feds will kick in more cash to ease the transition from paper to digital medical records, picking up the bulk of funding for regionally based technical assistance for four years instead of two.

The Health and Human Services Department had initially agreed to fund 90 percent of the operating costs for the nation's 62 Regional Assistance Centers for two years. Thereafter, the bulk of funding responsibility fell to the regional centers for the next two years, with HHS paying just 10 percent of costs through its Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT. Regional centers are to generate funding through fees and other revenues.

The original funding plan is no longer feasible because of the flagging economy, says Dr. David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health information technology. He announced the proposed funding shift in a notice that appeared in Tuesday's Federal Register.

In a separate letter released Thursday, Blumenthal notes that ONC is funneling another $32 million into the regional centers to "accelerate outreach" to health care providers and to provide more field support.

"We recognize that the early transition to [health IT] can be challenging and we want to make sure that our RECs are fully operational to help make this transition as smooth as possible," he writes. "We are committed to offer substantial ongoing support to achieve meaningful use through the RECs."

About 38,000 primary-care providers have registered for technical assistance from their regional centers, Blumenthal adds. The goal is to help at least 100,000 primary practices nationwide.

Blumenthal also announced $16 million in new Challenge Grants to fund health information exchange research, and $32 million in second-year funding for community colleges to train and graduate 10,500 health IT technicians per year.