Some providers fight for chance at federal health IT funding

IWatch news reports on this emerging issue while Modern Healthcare notes that a New Mexico Telehealth Project May Be National Modelrecent developments regarding health information technology.

IWatch News: Excluded Groups Want In On Health Information Technology
Providers frozen out of a $27 billion federal fund for conversion of medical records to electronic form are now fighting back in an effort to qualify for the money and possibly increase the size of the pot. The results of these multi-front battles are uncertain — but they are representative of a larger war. All over Washington, special interests are scrambling to improve their position by attempting to renegotiate portions of Obama's health care reform — in new regulations, interpretations and proposed legislation (Leonard, 523).

Modern Healthcare: N.M. Telehealth Project Could Be National Model, Report Says
A rural telehealth project in New Mexico could serve as a national model for serving chronically ill patients in underserved areas, according to a report published online in Health Affairs. The effort, called Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes, or ECHO, was originally created to treat a severe hepatitis C problem in the state where fewer than 1,600 of an estimated 34,000 residents with the disease were getting treated, according to the report (Barr, 5/22).