HHS awards $100M for children's health IT, quality measures

The Health & Human Services Department awarded $100 million in grants to 10 states to test provider performance measures, and to use pediatric electronic health records and other health information technologies to promote quality improvements.

The five-year grants aim to improve healthcare quality for children enrolled in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), both of which are managed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The grants were funded by the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA). Eight of the 10 awardees will test a new set of child health quality measures, and seven of the 10 states will use the funds to deploy health IT, with two states specifically planning to develop a new pediatric electronic health record format.

The awardees - Maine, Oregon, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Massachusetts, Colorado, Utah, South Carolina and Maryland -- will head both single-state projects and multi-state collaborations.