States Using CMS Grants For HIT

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

States with CMS-backed SHIP grants plan to use them to invest in health IT, according to a new report from Accenture.

An Accenture report finds most states with grants from CMS’ State Health Innovations Plan will use the money to invest in health IT. MobiHealth News reports that states received funding first in 2013 ($300 million) to help them design and test health projects, then in 2014 ($660 million) to actually deploy their plans.

According to the Accenture report, 19 participating states plan to expand the use of telehealth. Fifteen of them plan to increase access to electronic health records, provide more data on value-based health choices, and increase patient-facing digital tools, such as patient portals. Another 14 plan to invest in data aggregation and analytics tools to improve population health.

“State innovation plans will focus on integrating approaches to healthcare and expanding access to care, driven by the pressing need to improve outcomes and control healthcare costs,” said Kaveh Safavi M.D, global managing director of Accenture’s health practice in a press release. “Integrating healthcare and human services – starting with the data they gather and the outcomes they achieve – will break down data silos to make operations and information more transparent and coordinated while aligning federal resources to eliminate gaps.”

According to iHealth Beat, 28 states, three territories, and Washington, D.C., received grants to support state efforts to design and test innovative health care payment and delivery models and enhance the use of health IT.

“These initiatives taking hold across the country are part of the shift from an essentially outdated healthcare system to the evolution of family and community-centered care models and a real convergence of health and human services,” Safavi added.