Rural and North Florida Regional Extension Center
Congress created the Health Information Technology Extension Program for the establishment of non-profit Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers (RECs) that will offer technical assistance, guidance and information on best practices to support and accelerate health care providers’ efforts to become meaningful users of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). The legislation and the program's guidelines are available online.
RECs are charged with assisting primary care providers reach the meaningful use thresholds required to receive incentive payments under Medicaid and Medicare to adopt, implement, and use EHRs. This includes ePrescribing, exchange of data within the local healthcare community, advanced clinical reporting for quality improvement initiatives, connection to state and national registries, andmore. The incentives range as high as $44,000 to $64,000 per provider over a five-year period, and will help to offset acquisition, implementation, and training expenses your practice will incur.
CHCA is proud to serve as the Project Administrator for the proposed Rural and North Florida Regional Extension Center (RNF-REC). Click here to learn more about our Consortium partners.
RNF-REC proposes to support providers in 39 predominatly rural counties. Working with other applicants from Florida and with the State's Health Information Exchange Coordinating Committee (HIECC), counties across the northern tier of the state and additional predominantly rural counties along the west coast (service areas for CHCA members Manatee Rural Health Services and CHS Healthcare, among others), were chosen for the project. Our goal is to assure that the highest possible number of priority providers in these medically underserved and health professional shortage areas will receive REC services.
The service area may be amended by HHS if this proposal is selected for funding. However, there is commitment from the State and other REC coordinators to reach all priority primary care providers with the support they need to qualify for the pending Medicaid / Medicare incentive for EHR adoption under ARRA.