The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced that $220 million in grants will be awarded to 15 communities to advance health information technology (IT) infrastructure. The “Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program” awards will be made to non-profit organizations or government entities representing geographic health care communities. The grant may also be given to a consortium of stakeholder organizations and health care providers if the lead applicant is a U.S-based, non-profit organization or government entity in one of the five categories:
- State, local, tribal, or territorial government entity with a public health focus
- Integrated delivery network or health system with broad community partnerships
- Independent physician association or consortium of medical groups
- Public/Private partnership aimed at health system improvement and/or community health improvement
- ONC-funded regional extension center with the capacity to expand its services
Eligible applicants are expected to demonstrate an existing infrastructure for health IT and exchange, or previous success in either a community-level practice redesign and care coordination or community-level evaluation that advances health IT and exchange infrastructure. Applicants are required to provide a detailed approach describing how they plan to advance current health IT and exchange capabilities to achieve a more cost-effective and higher-quality patient care.
An additional $15 million will be provided for technical assistance to the communities to evaluate the success of the program.
An electronic Letter of Intent is required to be submitted by January 8, 2010. Final applications for the grants are due on February 1, 2010. Award decisions are anticipated in March 2010. The grants will last for a 36-months.
For more information, visit the HITECH website.
Public Knowledge (PK) is working with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) and the Urban Institute on a new Ford Foundation initiative. PK is assisting CBPP by conducting site visits in four states to assess how low-income families with children access and retain public assistance benefits. The goal of the site visits is to gather input from state and county staff, community organizations, and clients on how to streamline and integrate eligibility practices in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid and other core public assistance programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and childcare.
The results of the site visits will culminate in a paper published by CBPP on eligibility integration best practices for a new Ford Foundation initiative. The paper will accompany a grant opportunity the Ford Foundation and Urban Institute will make available to states and counties in 2010. The grant will fund demonstration projects in 5 to 10 states interested in implementing the best practices in order to integrate access and retention in the core public assistance programs.
PK completed the first site visit in Cuyahoga County, Ohio in November. Site visits in Washington State and Oklahoma are planned for January. The location of the fourth site visit is still being finalized.
For more information on the Ford Foundation initiative, see this NY Times article or go directly to the Ford Foundation’s Press Release.
The Pew Center on the States recently released a study entitled “Beyond California: States in Fiscal Peril”. You can find a copy here: http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/report_detail.aspx?id=56044.
The conclusions of the report are less interesting to us than some of the data:
- Only five states (Wyoming, Alabama, Montana, Iowa, and Nevada) did not see a drop in revenue from first quarter 2008 to first quarter 2009.
- All states except Montana and North Dakota face a budget gap for FY 2010.
- All states have seen an increase in unemployment.
The obvious conclusion we draw from this: States have less money and will, with higher unemployment, face more demand for their services. The stimulus bill only goes so far to patch these holes. Increased operational, organizational and information systems effectiveness and efficiency are necessary to manage these budget gaps without further cuts to staff and service levels.
