Dive Brief:
- The Office of the National Coordinator and HHS announced more than $36 million in grants to boost interoperability and education efforts at the annual ONC meeting in Washington, DC this week.
- Of that pool, about $1.7 million will be applied toward funding a community health peer learning program based on the Beacon Community Program. Another $6.4 million will be earmarked for the expansion of existing curricula and work in ONC's workforce training program, National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo told reporters.
- Separately, HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell announced a two-year, $28-million grant program to advance interoperability.
Dive Insight:
HHS and ONC's announcements are much needed and well timed: Just days ago, the ONC released the Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap, an idealistic 10-year proposal on how the government plans to align with the healthcare industry to achieve total interoperability in just a few years. With the $28-million grant, the government is saying that Roadmap is more than just a guidebook.
The Community Health Peer Learning Program (CHP) funding, which ONC says "will establish a cooperative agreement to address health challenges at the population level through a community-based collaborative approach" is a nice bonus, as efforts toward improving outcomes and reigning in costs could use a little pick-me-up.
