The Utah Health Information Network has created a Grant Committee to distribute public funds in an equitable manner to the Utah healthcare community. These funds come from ARRA (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) and HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act). The funds are targeted to assist the Health Care Community for establishing connections with the clinical Health Information Exchange (cHIE) and creating clinical data interfaces for data exchange. Meetings are held on a regular basis.
Grant Qualifications
Any entity who wants to participate in the statewide cHIE may apply. To qualify for grants the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) vendors involved must:
Be certified by an ONC approved organization (e.g. -CCHIT)
Agree to comply with UHIN contractual language
Agree to provide transparent pricing to include the ongoing costs to provider
Agree to support the UHIN technical standards
Agree to allow the publishing of the grant recipient amounts and the detail for those grants
Once an EMR vendor has developed an interface to a specific HIE, it must be made available to all providers within the State as part of the basic EMR offering, and the vendor will not charge full development costs for subsequent providers. Vendors will provide a connectivity model to support interoperability not based upon point to point interfaces. Vendor development cycles are transparent and UHIN will publish the vendor's performance against their service levels at the State level for:
Development
Delivery
Upgrade
Version management - upgrade path and pricing implications are transparent. Vendors should not continually change product paths and charge providers for new systems or modules unfairly.
Funding is distributed after any funded development and implementation work is completed and fully functioning.
Grant Process
Applicant submits application via Fax or Mail
Receipt of the application is acknowledged
UHIN Staff will Follow-up with applicants for additional information when necessary
Grant Committee rates applications during regularly scheduled meetings
Notice is sent to applicants regarding application decision
To obtain an Application, email cHIE@uhin.org or call 877-693-3071
Grant Recipients
Rating Criteria
The committee has developed criteria that are used to rate grant applications. These criteria include:
Financial Need
Long Range Plans
Stability/Reputation of the Organization
State of Readiness - Ability to Connect
Where are they now
Integrated vs. Independent
Resources needed for Connectivity
Commitments - Timeframe
Influence of the entity in the Community
Other Grant Opportunities:
Utah Department of Health Meaningful Use
IC3 - A Beacon Community
Financial assistance is available to those who sign up before March of 2011 to support connection to the UHIN clinical Health Information Exchange (cHIE) as part of participation in the Utah Beacon Community. The effort , "Improving Care through Connectivity and Collaboration" (IC3) will focus specifically on improving diabetes care in Salt Lake, Summit, and Tooele counties. Information on participation is available through HealthInsight.