On Monday, HHS announced about $162 million in awards to support health information exchange projects in 16 states and qualified state-designated entities, Healthcare IT News reports (Manos, Healthcare IT News, 3/15).
Funding for the awards comes from the 2009 federal economic stimulus package (Masterson, HealthLeaders Media, 3/15).
With the latest grant announcement, all U.S. states and eligible territories will have received stimulus funds for health information exchange initiatives, HHS said (United Press International, 3/15). On Feb. 12, HHS announced $386 million in health IT awards for 40 states, territories or state-designated entities (Goedert, Health Data Management, 3/15).
National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal said federal officials would provide states with guidance and technical assistance as part of the grants (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 3/15).
A list of the award recipients is included in an HHS release.