| HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced $320 million in grants under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to strengthen the health care workforce. Of those grants, $253 million will go to improve and expand the primary care workforce under the Prevention and Public Health Fund of the Affordable Care Act. Another $67 million in Health Profession [...] CMS Letter Outlines State Requirements for Medicaid Directors On Tuesday, CMS issued a letter to Stated Medicaid Directors. This is an update to the State Medicaid HIT Plan (SMHP) Overview from 2009. In July, the ONC issued a PIN (Program Information Notice) to State HIEs entitled “Requirements and Recommendations for the State Health Information Exchange [...] The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will provide $36 billion to promote electronic health records and the formation of regional centers that foster community-wide electronic health information exchange (HIE). Minnesota’s e-Health Law, passed in 2007, mandates electronic health record and HIE participation by all clinics and hospitals. [...] State Health Information Exchanges and Technology Centers are getting organized after being awarded millions in federal Recovery Act funds [...] State HIE, REC Recipients for Health IT A complete listing of the state HIE, REC and job training grant recipients is as follows: State HIE Awards: State HIE Awardee Award Amount Alabama Medicaid Agency $10,564,789 Arizona Governor’s Office of Economic Recovery $9,377,000 Arkansas Dept of Finance and Administration $7,909,401 California Health and Human Services Agency $38,752,536 [...] | |