| HIT Beacon Communities Awarded $220 Million
The second round of HIT Beacon Community grants have
been awarded, for $220 million to improve care throughout the U.S.
while building models and gaining evidence of benefits.
Over 130 applications were received, HHS said, but 15
health systems were recipients of millions to further their health
information exchange (HIE), improve effectiveness of care management
programs and increase the quality of care delivered; in return the
communities will set forth standards for other communities and health
systems to follow.
"The most important healthcare innovations are those
that are designed and tested by providers and community leaders all
across the country. Beacon Communities will offer insight into how
health IT can make a real difference in the delivery of healthcare,"
said Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of HHS. "The Beacon Community Program
will tap the best ideas across America and demonstrate the enormous
benefit health IT will have to improving health and care within our
communities."
Approximately $70,000 will be used specifically to create a total of 1,100 jobs in the health systems.
The recipients and programs receiving funds are:
- Community Services Council of Tulsa, Okla. – $12,043,948.
The funds will be used to strengthen relationships between all
healthcare players to improve cancer screening referrals and access to
diabetes care.
- Delta Health Alliance Inc., Stoneville, Miss. – $14,666156. The funds will aid in electronically linking all systems to improve diabetic care, patient education and medication therapy.
- Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, Brewer, Maine – $12,749,740. The funds will expand connectivity through HIE while promoting telemedicine to elderly patients needing constant care.
- Geisinger Clinic, Danville, Pa. – $16,069,110. The funds will create a community-wide medical home for pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure and promote HIE.
- HealthInsight, Salt Lake City, Utah – $15,790,181. The funds will be used to improve diabetes care through reporting measures and recruiting solutions to lower healthcare costs.
- Indiana Health Information Exchange, Indianapolis, Ind. – $16,008,431.
The funds will expand HIE to communities it has not reached yet,
improve cholesterol and blood sugar control in diabetes patients, and
improve after-hospitalization care through telemedicine monitoring.
- Inland Northwest Health Services, Spokane, Wash. – $15,702,479. The funds will establish anchor institutes to extend the HIE and increase diabetic preventative services in remote clinics.
- Louisiana Public Health Institute, New Orleans, La. – $13,525,434.
The funds will connect isolated health systems to decrease racial
health disparities and improve diabetes and smoking cessation rates.
- Mayo Clinic Rochester, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn. – $12,284,770. The funds will reduce costs associated with hospitalizations and emergency services for diabetics and children with asthma.
- Rhode Island Quality Institute – $15,914,787.
The funds will support HIT initiatives to improve diabetes management
and aid to transition to the patient-centered Medical home model, while
adapting the infrastructure to increase immunizations.
- Rocky Mountain Health Maintenance Organization, Grand Junction, Colo. – $11,878,279.
The funds will be used to increase data collection efforts to improve
blood pressure control in diabetics and patients with hypertension,
smoking cessation counseling and reduce unnecessary visits.
- Southern Piedmont Community Care Plan Inc., Concord, NC – $15,907,622.
The funds will be used to improve care coordination for patients with
diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and asthma through data sharing.
- The Regents of the University of California, San Diego, Calif. – $15,275,115.
The funds will increase health management among patients as well as
expand its electronic information transmission initiative for
cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease.
- University of Hawaii at Hilo – $16,091,390. The funds will implement a region-wide HIE and securing technology to ensure secure connections for telemedicine promotion.
- Western New York Clinical Information Exchange Inc., Buffalo – $16,092,485. The funds will utilize telemedicine solutions like registries and point-of-care alerts to improve primary and specialty care.
"These pioneering communities are going to lead the way
in bringing smarter, lower-cost healthcare to all Americans through use
of electronic health records. Because of their early efforts, the
country will one day be able to coordinate patient care with the stroke
of a key or pull up life-saving health information instantly in an
emergency – and for the residents of these communities, that
future is about to become a reality," said Vice President Joe Biden.
Address: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue SW, Washington DC 20201; (877) 696-6775, www.hhs.gov.
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