HHS Announces Regional Extension Center for Utah and Nevada
February 20, 2010
As a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) Health Information Technology (HIT) Extension Center program, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) have selected HealthInsight™ as the REC for Utah and Nevada.
Privately-held HealthInsight has been associated with Nevada and Utah, through the federal Medicare program for above 20 and 35 years, respectively. Being a Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO), HealthInsight offers HIT consultation, quality assessment, and improvement services. The organization helps Medicare beneficiaries realize their healthcare rights and responsibilities, responds to their concerns on care quality, and encourages the enhancement and positive delivery of healthcare systems and payment redesign. The not-for-profit organization also assesses medical record cases to decide if the care services comply by professionally recognized care standards, and were medically essential and apt.
As Nevada and Utah’s REC, HealthInsight, will aid the ONC-defined priority primary care providers in selecting and using EHRs through hands-on and one-on-one customized assistance. HealthInsight will primarily focus on primary care providers like family practices, federally qualified health centers, internal medicine, rural health clinics, OB/Gyn, pediatrics, and facilities providing services to underserved populations. HealthInsight will also provide support for providers and healthcare specialists not mentioned in the priority list.
Commencing with the REC operations in the current month, HealthInsight has plans to work with 1,500 providers during the first year, and an additional 1,500 providers through the coming three years and later. More than 1,000 healthcare providers across the two states have already agreed to work with HealthInsight to meet the eligibility criteria for obtaining Medicaid/Medicare bonus payments from the federal government.
According to the Nevada State Medical Association Executive Director, Larry Matheis, HealthInsight is well positioned to help physicians take decisions on novel technologies. Utah Medical Association’s CEO and Executive Vice President, Michelle McOmber strongly believes that the company’s establishment as a REC will bring more physicians online, and help the state to maintain and enhance its leadership in healthcare quality.
Regional Extension Centers
Authorized by the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) under the ARRA, the Extension Program aims at establishing approximately 70 (or more) Regional Extension Centers. The RECs will render direct, technical support, and information related to best practices, which can help care providers adopt and meaningfully use certified electronic health records (EHRs) for improved patient care outcome, while complying with patient data protection standards. The RECs will have to be affiliated with a US-based, not-for-profit organization or institution to receive allotted funds totaling $643 million, to be awarded on a rolling basis. The chosen RECs across specific regional areas will focus on delivering intensive technical assistance for:
• Clinicians, including physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, practicing particularly in solo and small group practices and employing less than 10 physicians with prescriptive privileges
• Physicians providing primary care in critical access hospitals, public, and community health centers, mainly catering to the uninsured, underinsured, and medically underserved populations
The RECs are anticipated to provide support and outreach services to at least 100,000 primary care providers over the first two years of the program.
The extension program recently got a boost through grants of $375 million, announced by the HHS secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, and United States Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis. The fund, a part of about $1 billion in Recovery Act awards, allotted to improve health IT adoption and its meaningful use, and train thousand of workers for jobs in healthcare and IT, will initially be distributed among 32 not-for-profit organizations for the development of RECs. Under this, HealthInsight, Utah-Nevada REC will get $6 million.
The decisive factor for the federal financial support of a Regional Center will depend on its efficacy in helping providers to meaningfully use certified EHRs. Under the ARRA extension program, a panel of private professionals, not associated with the center under evaluation, will be selected by HHS to assess the performance of each REC once in two years. Future financial support for the RECs will be based on overall results of these assessments, and HHS’ decision that the federal support works in the best interest of the program.
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