HRMS Newsletter

Article #7: Sebelius and Solis Announce $1 Billion in Awards in Advancing Use of Health IT and Training Workers for Health Jobs of the Future
Thursday, March 04, 2010 -

National EHR/EMR-Related Jobs Postings

As of March 3, 2010: 14,600

As of March 10, 2009: 6,040

+242%

Source: Indeed.com

NetAssets Exclusive Series of Articles On

Health Information Technology (HIT)

Publisher’s Note:

This series is being published to assist WIBs in modifying their strategic plans to focus on the areas of the economy with the greatest funding opportunities and programming needs---specifically supporting accelerated adoption of Electronic Health Records, aka Health Information Technology.

Article #7: Sebelius and Solis Announce Nearly $1 Billion Recovery Act Investment in Advancing Use of Health IT, Training Workers for Health Jobs of the Future

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis today announced a total of nearly $1 billion in Recovery Act awards to help health care providers advance the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology (IT) and train workers for the health care jobs of the future. The awards will help make health IT available to over 100,000 hospitals and primary care physicians by 2014 and train thousands of people for careers in health care and information technology.

The over $750 million in HHS grant awards Secretary Sebelius announced today are part of a federal initiative to build capacity to enable widespread meaningful use of health IT. This assistance at the state and regional level will facilitate health care providers' efforts to adopt and use electronic health records (EHRs) in a meaningful manner that has the potential to improve the quality and efficiency of health care for all Americans.

Of the over $750 million investment, $386 million will go to 40 states and qualified State Designated Entities (SDEs) to facilitate health information exchange (HIE) at the state level, while $375 million will go to an initial 32 non-profit organizations to support the development of regional extension centers (RECs) that will aid health professionals as they work to implement and use health information technology - with additional HIE and REC awards to be announced in the near future. RECs are expected to provide outreach and support services to at least 100,000 primary care providers and hospitals within two years.

The more than $225 million in DOL grant awards Secretary Solis announced will be used to train 15,000 people in job skills needed to access careers in health care, IT and other high growth fields. Through existing partnerships with local employers, the recipients of these grants have already identified roughly 10,000 job openings for skilled workers that likely will become available in the next two years in areas like nursing, pharmacy technology and information technology. The grants will fund 55 separate training programs in 30 states to help train people for secure, well-paid health jobs and meet the growing employment demand for health workers.

Employment services will be available via the Department of Labor's local One Stop Career Centers, and training will be offered at community colleges and other local education providers.

In addition to the 10,000 jobs the DOL grantees expect to fill with freshly trained workers, the health IT extension centers are expected to hire over 3,000 technology workers nationwide in the months ahead.

Here’s a summary of the award amounts and receipients:

Department of Labor Job Training Awards

Healthcare / High Growth Grant Recipient	Award Amount
Calhoun Community College	$3,470,830
Mid-South Community College	$3,391,053
South Arkansas Community College	$3,520,612
Kern Community College District (KCCD)	$2,768,572
Los Rios Community College District	$4,988,561
Mt. San Antonio Community College District	$2,239,714
San Diego State University Research Foundation	$4,953,575
San Jose State University Research Foundation	$5,000,000
San Bernardino Community College District	$4,260,863
Youth Policy Institute	$3,623,473
Spanish Speaking Unity Council	$3,559,139
Otero Junior College	$4,999,350
National Council of La Raza	$3,457,516
Providence Health Foundation of Providence Hospital	$4,953,999
DeKalb Technical College (DTC)	$2,043,859
Governors State University	$4,994,686
Indianapolis Private Industry Council, Inc.	$4,885,812
Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana	$5,000,000
Iowa Workforce Development	$3,403,164
Maysville Community and Technical College	$2,007,637
Louisiana Technical College, Greater Acadiana Region 4	$4,859,040
Southern University at Shreveport	$4,296,308
Maine Department of Labor	$4,892,213
The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC)	$4,928,654
Macomb Community College	$4,971,642
American Indian Opportunities Industrialization Center	$5,000,000
Northland Community and Technical College	$4,996,844
MN State Colleges & Universities DBA Pine Technical College	$4,230,950
South Central College	$4,506,101
The Montgomery Institute	$4,519,625
Full Employment Council	$4,998,344
Crowder College	$3,576,760
Maryville University - St. Louis	$4,699,354
University of New Hampshire	$2,944,732
Passaic County Community College	$4,475,041
Fulton Montgomery Community College (FMCC)	$2,865,657
Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC)	$3,382,200
University Behavioral Associates, Inc.	$5,000,000
Workforce Investment Board of Herkimer, Madison, and Oneida Counties	$2,700,096
Goodwill Industries, Inc., Serving E. Neb and SW Iowa	$2,007,846
Nevada Cancer Institute	$3,262,676
Berea Children’s Home	$4,927,843
BioOhio	$5,000,000
Cincinnati State Technical and Community College	$4,935,132
Columbus State Community College	$4,605,303
Enterprise for Employment and Education	$2,373,073
Trident Technical College	$2,624,532
Florence-Darlington Technical College (FDTC)	$4,346,351
The University of South Dakota	$5,000,000
Centerstone of Tennessee, Inc.	$5,000,000
North Central Texas College	$4,150,005
San Jacinto Community College District	$4,722,919
The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB)	$4,655,799
Shenandoah Valley Workforce Investment Board, Inc. (SVWIB)	$4,951,991
Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board	$5,000,000
Total	$226,929,446

State Health Information Exchange Awards

State HIE Awardees	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
Colorado Regional Health Information Organization	$9,175,777
Delaware Health Information Network	$4,680,284
Government of the District of Columbia	$5,189,709
Georgia Department of Community Health	$13,003,003
Office of the Governor (Guam)	$1,600,000
The Hawaii Health Information Exchange	$5,602,318
Illinois Department of Health care and Family Services	$18,837,639
Kansas Health Information Exchange Project	$9,010,066
Cabinet for Health and Family Services (Kentucky)	$9,750,000
State of Maine/Governor's Office of Health Policy & Finance	$6,599,401
Massachusetts Technology Park Corporation	$10,599,719
Michigan Department of Health	$14,993,085
Minnesota Department of Health	$9,622,000
Missouri Depart of Social Services	$13,765,040
Nevada Department of Health and Human Services	$6,133,426
New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services	$5,457,856
Lovelace Clinic Foundation, New Mexico	$7,070,441
New York eHealth Collaborative Inc.	$22,364,782
Commonwealth of the NMI, Department of Public Health	$800,000
North Carolina Department of State Treasurer	$12,950,860
Ohio Health Information Partnership LLC	$14,872,199
Oklahoma Health Care Authority	$8,883,741
Pacific Ecommerce Development Corporation (American Samoa)	$600,000
State of Oregon	$8,579,992
Governor's Office of Health Care Reform Commonwealth of Pennsylvania	$17,140,446
Oticina del Gobernador La Fortaeza (Puerto Rico)	$7,770,980
Rhode Island Quality Institute	$5,280,000
State of Tennessee	$11,664,580
Utah Department of Health	$6,296,705
Vermont Department of Human Services	$5,034,328
Virgin Islands Department of Health	$1,000,000
Virginia Department of Health	$11,613,537
Health Care Authority (Washington)	$11,300,000
West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources	$7,819,000
Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services	$9,441,000
Office of the Governor (Wyoming)	$4,873,000
Total Award Amount	$385,978,640

Regional Extension Center Awards

RECs Awardee	Award Amount
Altarum Institute, Michigan	$19,619,990
Arkansas Foundation For Medical Care	$7,400,000
CIMRO of Nebraska	$6,647,371
Colorado RHIO	$12,475,000
District of Columbia Primary Care Association	$5,488,437
Fund for Public Health New York	$21,754,010
Greater Cincinnati HealthBridge (Ohio-Kentucky)	$9,738,000
Health Choice Network, Inc.,Florida	$8,500,000
HealthInsight, Utah-Nevada	$6,917,783
Iowa IFMC	$5,508,019
Kansas Foundation for Medical Care Inc.	$7,000,000
Key Health Alliance (Stratis Health), Minnesota – North Dakota	$19,000,000
Lovelace Clinic, New Mexico	$6,175,000
Massachusetts Technology Park Cooperation	$13,433,107
MetaStar, Inc, Wisconsin	$9,125,000
Morehouse School of Medicine, Inc., Georgia	$19,521,542
New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC)	$26,534,999
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill	$13,569,169
Northern California Regional Extension Center	$17,286,081
Northern Illinois University	$7,546,000
Northwestern University	$7,649,533
OCHIN Inc. (Primary), Oregon	$13,201,499
Ohio Health Information Partnership	$28,500,000
Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality, Inc.	$5,331,685
Purdue University	$12,000,000
Qsource (Tennessee)	$7,256,155
Qualis Health, Washington - Idaho	$12,846,482
Rhode Island Quality Institute	$6,000,000
Southern California Regional Extension Center	$13,961,339
Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc.	$6,762,080
VHQC and the Center for Innovative Technology, for The Virginia Consortium	$12,425,000
West Virginia Health Improvement Institute Inc.	$6,000,000
Total Award Amount	$375,173,281