Biden announces more than $1B in funding for e-health records
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Nearly $1.2 billion in grants from the $787 billion stimulus bill are being made available to help fund use of electronic health records, the office of Vice President Joe Biden announced Thursday.
Roughly half of the $1.2 billion is designated to help establish approximately 70 regional centers across the country that will provide assistance to hospitals and medical professionals in selecting and using electronic records. The grant program will provide funding for the regional centers for four years beginning with the federal government's 2010 fiscal year.
The administration expects that the centers will be self-sustaining at the end of those four years, according to material from HHS circulated Thursday by Biden's office.
The remaining $600 million in grants is designated to fund efforts at the state level to come up with mechanisms for information exchange involving electronic health records.
"The grants are designed to help doctors and hospitals acquire electronic health records and use them in meaningful ways to improve the health of patients and reduce waste and inefficiency," Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, said in the statement.
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Please read...this is already part of the stimulus bill that was approved a long time ago. This is not additional money so chill out. I think its a great idea!
Pilot programs for electronic health records have been in the making for approximately 20 years and are proven to be successful. FACT
The medicare system needs to be evened out so younger healthier people can pay into it that do not rack up as much medical cost as older people. If this doesn’t happen all the older people will lose because medicare will go bankrupt.
So for you older protesters against the public option – be careful what you wish for. If you get your way you will be the big losers in a few years.
Here come the conservatives: where's my privacy? This can't save money! The Dems will use the list to kill grandma! The Dems are evil, socialist, commie, fascist, nazi Hitlers. Did I hit Rush's point of the week yet?
This needs to happen. If Bush hadn't been in his war fog, he would have fixed this 9 years ago! And if he and conservatives cared about anyone but rich white Americans, they would have done something about health care before it got so bad. Hard to do when the insurance cos. are funding your campaigns.
This isn't a good idea: it is a necessity.
In a majority of the larger medical institutions nationwide, e-health records have already been implemented. Where has the government been.
If the government has a plan, why aren't they used as a pilot group initially to see if their plan is successful, then implement their plan nationwide after the problems are addressed.
Axelrod is going to love this, wonder how much money will be in his pockets
Electronic health records...what a great idea! And of course our privacy will be protected just like with our credit card accounts...yeah, just like those accounts that we keep hearing about being accidentally released or hacked into. The only difference is that credit cards can be replaced. Once your health records are out there...they are out there and the damage can never be reversed. What fools we are to watch our freedom slipping through our hands in the name of efficiency and cost savings.
I think it is great to have my medical records available to any hacker who wants to see them. I think it is wonderful for the government to have my records to protect me from myself from the cradle to grave.
And you all thought the Patriot Act was a bad idea.
Let's Start A New Rumor....if health care is defeated....the health insurance companies will be purging their client rolls and doubling health insurance premiums to the rest!!!!!!!!
Oh great! Now the government will have access to my health records as well as my bank account. Mark my words people, ACORN and the evil narcisstic obamabots will use this info to decide who faces the death panels!!! I want to see this Dr. David Blumenthal's birth certificate! What kind of a name is Blumenthal anyways? It sounds Mexican or something. Have a nice day!
Can you just imagine what will happen to our records? User error! People who are incompetent on a computer can and will cause a lot of damage with typos, transposing numbers, misspelling a name, or even accidentally deleting a file. What happens when the computer sorts by those critical parameters? And, what happens when our records are compromised by disgruntled employees, or even hackers?
By the way, Claudia in Houson who commented above, just proved my point. Where is Houson? It sounds like a good idea, but I think we're asking for trouble, even if we mean well.
The health care packing will pass and become law by January. Then everyone will openly see the lies and scare tactics that the GOP tried to use to prevent its passage. Once these criminals are exposed, they will be ousted from their seats in Washington. The tactics they have used are despicable to say the least. I would say they should be ashamed of themselves, but these people have no morals and can’t be shamed.
SOME of the comments of these blogs from the far-right are just plain ignorant and frankly, evil.
WHERE were these CRITICS of SPENDING when BUSH was HIDING THE ACTUAL COST OF THE IRAQ WAR FROM AMERICAN TAX PAYERS?????????
AT LEAST WE KNOW WHAT OBAMA IS SPENDING TO KICK-START THE BUSH ECONOMY!
Let's tell the TRUTH MOST of the so-called-protesters are plants! Keith Olbermann on his show last night showed a copy of a MEMO sent to UNITED HEALTHCARE EMPLOYEES ASKING THEM TO GO TO TOWNHALLS AND PROTEST AND DISRUPT THE CONVERSATION!
Hate has become like a drug to many of the people posting on here everyday.They must lead sad little lives,even if they are paid to spew Rush Limbaugh talking points.
some of you are so slow...this is money that is coming from the stimulus package that has already been passed. It's efficient and will cut down on a substanial part of healthcare.