Hospital Support Expanded

Dr. David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, national coordinator for health information technology in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced an additional $12 million in new technical support assistance to help critical access hospitals (CAHs) and rural hospitals adopt and become meaningful users of certified health information technology.

As a participant in the national Regional Extension Center program to support the adoption and meaningful use of certified health information technology, the Key Health Alliance received $744,000 to expand its support of critical access and small rural hospitals (fewer than 50 beds) in Minnesota and North Dakota. With the new grant, REACH is now able to provide an enhanced level of support services to critical access hospitals (CAHs) and rural hospitals to help them qualify for substantial EHR incentive payments from Medicare and Medicaid.

With the expanded funds, REACH will facilitate communication of implementation timelines for hospital planning and achievement of meaningful use by 2014. Also, REACH staff will work with vendors to support small rural and critical access hospital quality reporting. REACH will receive the additional funding as hospitals achieve milestones described by Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). The additional funding was based on a formula that increased the resources available to REACH to provide additional technical assistance and support to eligible hospitals from $12,000 to $18,000 per hospital. The lowest REACH service fees are available until March 31, 2011. The hospital fee increases to $2,000 on April 1.

Key Health Alliance (KHA), a Minnesota based partnership of Stratis Health, the National Rural Health Resource Center, and The College of St. Scholastica is the federally designated Regional Extension Assistance Center for Health Information Technology (REACH) for Minnesota and North Dakota.  North Dakota Health Care Review, Inc., and the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences Center for Rural Health are working with KHA to meet the unique needs of the North Dakota provider community and build a cohesive and effective program across both states.