On July 12, the State of New York announced $140 million in additional state funding to support the development and use of health information technology. This includes competitive grants to advance the development of Patient Centered Medical Homes (PCMHs) using electronic health records for the entire continuum of care to improve coordination, reduce duplication, and avoid medical errors (saving money as well as lives).  The state also seeks to achieve better sharing of information with patients to help them make informed choices about their care, and to improve the participation of mental health, home health care, and other long term care providers in the PCMH model.   The PCMH grants are expected to be approximately $120 million over a two-year period, beginning January 1, 2011.  The grant application deadline is August 9.  New York State also announced $12 million in continued support for the Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY), through a Department of Health contract with the New York eHealth Collaborative, and the availability of another $8 million for three other health IT initiatives related to promoting regional collaboration, accreditation standards, and project evaluation.  The funding opportunities announced on July 12 will bring New York’s total investment in health IT to over $710 million.