Georgia gets HIE grant; vows access for Medicaid providers

A $3.2 million grant awarded earlier this week to the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will significantly advance the state’s goal of ensuring all its Medicaid providers have access to an electronic medical record (EMR) system and the ability to participate in an electronic health information exchange, the state’s health IT executive said.

Georgia, which currently has 22,423 physicians and 256 hospitals enrolled in Medicaid, is the second state in the south to receive a grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)’s health IT provisions. Iowa, California, Texas, Montana, Vermont, New York and Idaho have also recently received stimulus funding from CMS.

DCH will use the grant to create a State Medicaid Health Information Technology Plan (SMHP). The four-month effort will include designing the incentive payment program for Medicaid providers, defining the reimbursement method for Medicaid providers who adopt EHRs according to “meaningful use” criteria and determining the total amount of incentive funds that will be required from CMS.

The grant money will also be used to create a tracking program for meaningful use attestations and reporting mechanisms, as well as to plan marketing initiatives that encourage physicians to adopt EHR system.

“This funding is very critical,” said Dr. Carladenise Edwards, Georgia HIT coordinator and chief of staff of the Georgia DCH, noting that the agency has already undertaken a search for contractors with expertise in the areas of Medicaid finance, business development and strategic planning.

“Without these resources, planning would depend on existing resources, which are already overcommitted due to staffing shortages and the need to staff other high-priority, time-sensitive projects.”

Edwards said she does not expect stimulus funding alone to achieve a 100 percent EHR adoption rate among state Medicaid providers but it will likely get a large majority on board. Some Georgia providers are located in rural areas and grappling with a lack of access to a secure, high-speed broadband connection, she said. Others will be delayed by the complex challenges inherent in transitioning from a paper-based to an electronic system, including training staff and reengineering workflow.

Additional ARRA funding, she noted, is available to help with those challenges through the Regional Extension Project, broadband initiatives and the Medicaid Incentive Program.

The SMHP will align with the state’s goal to develop a statewide HIE, Edwards notes, and Georgia has a pending application with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONCHIT) for $16.9 million. DCH officials expect ONCHIT to make an award based on that application before the end of 2009.

Edwards said the current planning process will ensure that the HIE funding aligns with the state’s many health IT initiatives, including Georgia Healthe Connect, which provides Georgia providers access to an EHR though a software-as-a-service model; the Children’s Health Passport, a Web-based, portable health record accessible to both parents and providers; and the Georgia Rx Exchange, a secure and private environment that will facilitate sharing of pharmaceutical information across publicly funded, state administered health care programs.