New York State awards medical grants to I.T. projects
ALBANY, N.Y. New York Gov. David Paterson and State Health Commissioner Richard Daines have awarded $105 million in medical technology grants to 19 leading community-based health information technology projects, according to published reports.
“Electronic health records will begin to repair our fragmented delivery system by making sure that accurate patient information is quickly available so that we can improve health care quality and efficiency,” said Paterson. “Electronic health records represent a cornerstone in the transformation of our health care system. They will boost our efforts to improve the delivery of preventative care while maintaining appropriate safeguards to protect patient privacy.”
The projects selected the following goals to guide the technical implementation ensuring that clinicians gain upfront, consistent value from health information, including:
- Medicaid: Linking Medicaid data to interoperable electronic health records so that clinicians may electronically receive a patient’s Medicaid-reimbursed prescriptions, Medicaid eligibility and recertification period, as well as Medicaid’s preferred drugs.
- Public Health: Linking electronic health records to the New York State Immunization Registry to ensure seamless reporting of immunization records to improve children’s health.
- Patients: Helping New Yorkers have greater control over and access to their personal health information by connecting patients and clinicians through personal health records and other patient-focused tools.
- Quality of Care: Implementing quality measurement and reporting capabilities, which includes shared infrastructure among payers and providers to collect and assess information about performance and outcomes to support new prevention and outcome-based reimbursement models.
Grants range from $1 million to $10 million each.