On Thursday, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced it has awarded more than $87 million in funding for 1,310 health centers nationwide to support health IT enhancements to accelerate health centers’ transition to value-based models of care. The funding will improve efforts to share and use information to support better decisions, and increase engagement in delivery system transformation, according to the HHS announcement. The announcement marks the first significant investment since 2009 directly awarded to health centers to support the purchase of health IT.
This funding comes from the Affordable Care Act’s Community Health Center (CHC) Fund, which was extended with bipartisan support in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015. The increased use of health information technology is part of the administration’s efforts to build a health care system that delivers better care, smarter spending and healthier people.
“Health centers across the country are instrumental in providing high-quality, comprehensive primary health care to millions of people,” said Secretary Burwell in the HHS announcement. “This investment will help unlock health care data and put it to work, improving health outcomes and building a better health care system for the American people.”
