The California Health Information Partnership and Services Organization has developed the necessary infrastructure to help more than 7,700 health providers in the state implement electronic health records, according to CalHIPSO's biennial report, Healthcare IT News reports (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 5/9).
Background
CalHIPSO is one of 62 federally designated regional extension centers and is responsible for providing health information technology support to all of California except Los Angeles and Orange counties (iHealthBeat, 1/12/11).
CalHIPSO is the largest federally designated REC in the U.S. (Healthcare IT News, 5/9).
The REC launched in 2010 with $33.2 million in federal grants. It originally estimated that it would sign up just fewer than 6,200 health care providers to receive initial subsidies for technical assistance (Payers & Providers, 5/10).
Report Details
According to the report, about 2,800 health care providers in the state have some EHR use capability, and 210 providers have fully implemented an EHR and demonstrated Stage 1 meaningful use.
Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record systems can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments.
CalHIPSO also reported that:
- Members have earned more than $65 million in meaningful use incentive payments;
- A second round of EHR vendor selection has begun to expand on an initial group of seven vendors;
- It has launched a technical services unit (Healthcare IT News, 5/9); and
- It is piloting a data analytics platform (Kutscher, Modern Healthcare, 5/9).