HHS, USDA loan program to promote rural HIT adoption

The federal departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture are collaborating on a loan program that enables rural doctors to implement health IT (Source: “Government task force aims to expand health IT to rural areas,” Healthcare IT News, Aug. 24, 2011).

Two key USDA Rural Development programs that can help expand health IT infrastructure in rural America are:

• Community Facilities Program, which provides direct, guaranteed loans and grants for community facilities projects in rural areas. This program may help offset the costs of electronic health records implementation for rural health care providers.
• Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program, which may provide grants to help bring telemedicine services to rural communities.

The Health Policy Institute of Ohio has updated its latest report, Making the Connection: A progress report on the history and status of statewide HIT and HIE implementation in Ohio.