Health IT Blotter: Extension center choices, Medicaid meaningful use, 'build or buy' shift

Computerworld: "The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has selected the final two of 62 regional extension centers (REC), which will help small, rural hospitals and private physicians with the nationwide rollout of electronic medical records (EMR) systems. The last two centers to receive part of $677 million in grant money through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) are the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, which received $5.1 million, and the CalOptima Foundation, which received $4.7 million" (Mearian, 9/28).

Government Health IT: The Health Information Management and Systems Society's journal reports, "As if they didn't have enough on their plates, state Medicaid offices are now digesting the final version of the meaningful use rules so they can be ready to manage and monitor the flow of incentive payments to their home Medicaid providers who qualify for HITECH Act health IT subsidies" (Hayes, 9/28).

The Financial Times: The question for healthcare companies when it comes to information technology is: 'Buy or build?' And until recently, the answer - particularly for larger hospitals and healthcare [centers] - has often been 'build'. However, that balance is shifting, as IT providers rush in to claim their share of the market, and healthcare providers [recognize] the advantages of [standardization], interoperability and information exchange" (Murray, 9/28).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.