Obama administration to announce $975 million in health IT grants

The Associated Press: "The Obama administration is awarding $975 million in grants to help states and health care providers adopt health information technology. The grant money being announced Friday comes from the economic stimulus legislation passed by Congress last year and is part of the administration's push to get doctors, hospitals and others to move from paper to computerized record-keeping. Administration officials say the grants are designed to provide savings down the road by eliminating duplicative tests and time-consuming paper work. The White House says the awards will help make health information technologies available to more than 100,000 hospitals and primary care physicians by 2014 while helping to train thousands of people for careers in health care and information technology" (2/12).

Reuters/The Washington Post: U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "will announce more than $750 million in awards for states and healthcare providers. [Labor Secretary Hilda] Solis will announce more than $225 million in Department of Labor grant awards that will be used to train 15,000 people in job skills needed to support careers in healthcare, information technology and other high growth fields. The White House said grant recipients had identified about 10,000 openings for skilled workers likely to become available within the next two years. ... The administration has contended that boosting the use of information technology in healthcare can help control skyrocketing costs, a central theme of the health overhaul push" (Zengerle and Eastham, 2/12).

Texas Tribune Blog, on the growing numbers of doctors using e-records: "According to a Fall 2009 study from the Texas Medical Association the number of those physicians jumped significantly over the last two years — in what looks to be a continuing trend. The study found that 43 percent of doctors who responded to the survey were using electronic medical records in their practices in 2009, up from 33 percent in 2007 and 27 percent in 2005. Another 41 percent of 2009 respondents said they planned to implement electronic medical records soon" (Kreighbaum, 2/11).