HHS Awards Beacon Grants To Cincinnati, DetroitHHS Awards Beacon Grants To Cincinnati, Detroit

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Thursday that Cincinnati and Detroit are the two final pilot communities selected under the Beacon Community Program. The awardees are the Greater Cincinnati HealthBridge, granted $13.8 million, and the Southeastern Michigan Health Association, awarded $16.2 million. The funds will be spent over a three-year period to accelerate the adoption of health IT that will help transform local healthcare systems.

"The Beacon program uses health information technology tools to link health providers and other community-wide resources in new and innovative ways," secretary Sebelius said in a statement. "Under the Beacon program, communities first identify leading health problems that are unique to their community, develop innovative, health IT-related strategies, and work together through community collaborations to implement their strategies and track their performance."

The Greater Cincinnati HealthBridge will serve a 16-county area spanning three states surrounding greater Cincinnati. Under the Beacon program, HealthBridge and its partners will use its advanced health information exchange (HIE) program to develop new quality improvement and care coordination initiatives focusing on pediatric asthma patients, adult diabetics, and smokers.

For example, not only will physicians and other providers receive more timely and accurate information about when their patients experience a medical complication or are hospitalized, they will have new support from care managers to use this information effectively to intervene early and assist patients in managing their health and avoiding further complications. The program aims to provide better clinical information and IT-based decision support tools to physicians, health systems, federally qualified health centers, and critical access hospitals.

As part of the Beacon program, this health IT community collaboration will also provide patients and their families with timely access to data, knowledge, and tools to make informed decisions and manage their own health and healthcare.

The Southeastern Michigan Health Association (SEMHA) and its partners in the greater Detroit area will use health IT tools and strategies to prevent and better manage diabetes, which today affects a large percentage of residents of the city of Detroit.

This community collaboration will leverage existing and new technologies across healthcare settings to improve the availability of patient information at the point of care, regardless of where the patient is in the health system. Furthermore, the collaborative will provide practical support to physician practices to help clinicians, nurses, and others make the best use of electronic health data to catch potential health complications before they arise. The city's clinicians will be able to track clinical outcomes with the overarching goal of making long-term, sustainable improvements in the quality and efficiency of diabetes care in Detroit, Hamtramck, Highland Park, Dearborn, and Dearborn Heights, Mich.

"Beacon Communities are designed to point the way toward maximizing community resources to address specific health goals at the local level, including quality of care, the cost of care, and the health of the whole population," Dr. David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health IT, said in a statement. "We have seen first-hand through the Beacon application process that a great many communities have promising ideas and are starting to use health IT in innovative ways. We look forward to engaging and helping these communities through a broader nationwide effort."

In the near term, the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) will work closely with other federal partners and the private sector to identify and share promising IT-based healthcare solutions among communities across America.

"Although we could only select two additional Beacon communities, we are incredibly impressed by the creativity and focus exhibited by communities over the course of this competition," Blumenthal said. "Local leadership is an essential ingredient to improving healthcare. The Beacon Community application process provides strong evidence that communities throughout the country are mobilizing for positive change, using health IT as a critical foundation for improving healthcare."

The Beacon Community awards are part of an overall $100 billion federal government investment in science, innovation, and technology the Obama administration is making through the Recovery Act. The two awardees join 15 other projects selected in May for the Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program. The other communities that previously received Beacon program funding are Tulsa, Okla.; Stoneville, Miss.; Brewer, Maine; Danville, Pa.; Salt Lake City; Indianapolis; Spokane, Wash. New Orleans; Rochester, Minn.; Providence, R.I.; Grand Junction, Colo.; Concord, N.C.; San Diego, Calif.; Hilo, Hawaii; and Buffalo, N.Y.

Beacon projects are expected to initially create dozens of new jobs, paying an average of $70,000 per year, in each of the communities, while accelerating development of a nationwide health IT infrastructure that will eventually employ tens of thousands of Americans.

The Beacon program is one of several new programs created by the Health Information Technology Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act last year. HITECH included $2 billion for technical assistance, training, and demonstration programs supporting the adoption of heath IT, including electronic health records (EHRs). Total funding for the Beacon program initiatives is $250 million, plus an additional $15 million for technical assistance and evaluation.

For Further Reading

HHS Awards $220 Million For Health IT

Biden Touts Recovery Act For Improving Healthcare

Health IT Alone Won't Improve Primary Care

Beacon Program Director Clarifies 'Meaningful Use'