Massachusetts shows it's a leader in Health IT

As Massachusetts gets ready to deploy federal and state funds to set up a health information exchange (HIE) to link electronic medical records across the state, companies are clamoring to be a part of the action.

“There is definitely a gold rush out there,” said Marshall Votta, director of government affairs at Cambridge-based NaviNet Inc. The company, which is best-known for providing billing and administrative services, is expanding to add clinical data exchange to its arsenal. The company has offered its Web portal free to each of the 50 states, and its business model relies on payment from insurers per transaction, not providers...

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...Massachusetts was awarded $11.5 million by the federal government to implement an HIE, but has not received the funds as of yet. The state must first file a completed plan for the HIE and officials at the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) said that they expect to issue RFPs to potential vendors in 2011. The state also has $12 million in state funds that were part of an original appropriation of $25 million two years ago. Budget cuts reduced that figure to $15 million, and so far $3 million has been spent to set up the administrative entity charged with establishing the statewide HIE, called the Massachusetts e-Health Institute. The state has until now been part of a p...

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Massachusetts Health IT is Rolling

  Mass. health IT attracts $26M in federal funds

Massachusetts has pulled in $25.6 million in federal funding for work in health information technology, according to an announcement by Gov. Deval Patrick and the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation.

The funding will be divided so that $15 million supports electronic health records implementation and $10.6 million will be used for a secure health information network to be built in Massachusetts.

See full article at Mass High Tech....

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