E-health records grants to create 1,000 jobs, White House says

Health information technology grants awarded to 15 communities for expanding the use of electronic health records also will create about 1,000 jobs, White House officials announced on Tuesday.

Everyone wants to hear, "You're hired," said Jared Bernstein, chief economist to Vice President Joseph Biden, during a conference call with reporters. The announcement "will bring that news to over 1,000 more people."

Earlier on Tuesday Biden said the administration had awarded $220 million in stimulus funds to communities selected as pioneers in expanding the use of digital patient records.

About $15 million will go to the Regents of the University of California at San Diego for improving the health care of veterans and military personnel, in partnership with the Veterans Affairs and Defense departments. The two agencies are developing an electronic health record that will accompany service members from active duty throughout their lives, called the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record. VA began testing an exchange system for such records in San Diego earlier this year.

White House officials highlighted Tulsa, Okla., among the regions chosen as so-called beacon communities, which are intended to show the rest of the country how to build a health IT infrastructure capable of quickly and securely exchanging medical records, information and video-based consultations over the Internet.

"Tulsa taxpayers and patients will save millions of dollars a year with this technology," said Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. The city has a high incidence of obesity and diabetes and the highest death rate from cardiovascular disease in the nation, she noted.

Tulsa will receive $12 million to foster collaboration among hospitals, providers, payers and government agencies to increase referrals for appropriate screenings and lower unnecessary specialist visits. This coordination system also will heighten access to care for diabetes patients through telemedicine, or remote video-based consultations via the Internet.

Officials narrowed a competitive pool of 137 applicants to 15 based on the strength of local adoption of electronic health records and the experience the community had in delivering health care, said David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health IT at HHS.

A list of the communities HHS chose, the funding each will receive and the projects are available online.

HHS officials said they plan to announce in the future the application process for an additional $30.3 million in beacon community awards.