Sylvia Burwell, Secretary for the Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that $87 million in funding will become available to more than 1300 health centers. This funding will be available to all 50 states in addition to the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Basin.
The main goal of the funding is to give IT developments better momentum in the transition from the current “Fee For Service” model to the new “Fee For Value” based model. The upgrades will allow health center workers to more easily share data and obtain up-to-date records in real time. The modernizations to EHR records is expected to benefit more than 24 million people that go to health centers. “These awards will allow health centers to deliver higher quality of care to patients and spend health care dollars in a smarter way,” said Jim Macrae, Health Resources and Services Administration Acting Administrator.
The $87 million award follows a series of previous awards to health centers from HHS. In May, HHS awarded $260 million to nearly 300 health centers to allow for renovation and expansions to better accommodate growing populations. In June, $36 million was awarded just for IT sharing to 50 of the greater health centers in the United States.
