The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services announced that nearly $27 million is available through two funding opportunities to help rural health care providers, including hospitals, long-term care nursing facilities, behavioral health providers, and health centers, among others, invest in technology that improves patient experience and care.
Funded through Pennsylvania’s Rural Health Transformation Plan (RHTP) award, the funding will support qualified providers looking to implement electronic health records and join Pennsylvania’s Patient & Provider Network, which improves information sharing between health providers and systems, leading to better care.
The funding opportunity is open for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and FQHC look-alikes until August 7, or until available funding is fully committed. The opportunity is open for hospitals, long-term nursing care facilities, behavioral health providers, and others until August 14, or until available funding is fully committed.
“Electronic health records and interoperability between health systems increases information available to providers to offer individualized, informed care that considers a person’s holistic health needs and experiences. Historically, the onus would be on a patient to provide this information – a system that can be burdensome at best and, at times, impossible,” said PA DHS Secretary Dr. Val Arkoosh. “These funding opportunities will help rural health providers make this investment in their system, their workforce, and their patients – improving efficiency and operations and, most importantly, improving care and coordination for their patients.”
Pennsylvania was awarded $193 million in federal funding for the first year of its approved five-year RHTP. Year One of the grant will primarily focus on rapid response program payments, while the majority of the plan is built around regional oversight and recommendations for funding. Additional funding opportunities will be announced in the near future. More information about upcoming rapid response funding opportunities is available here.
