On October 29, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced a new IT grant competition program to help states create the health information technology (HIT) systems needed to run the exchange programs required by the health care reform law, to be established by 2014.  These “early innovator” grants will be made available to five states --or coalition of states-- that develop innovative HIT systems to run their exchange programs.  A DHHS spokesperson indicated that the agency had not yet decided on the size of the grants, because “we are looking for the states to establish the parameters of the project, how ambitious they want to be, and what those costs would be”.  He also said, “States not chosen for the grants will save money because they won’t have to reinvent the wheel – they can simply use the same designs as those developed by the grant recipients.”  DHHS plans to announce the winners of the grants by February 15.        

About Sam Fish

Sam Fish has over 40 years of legal experience in federal and state human services laws and programs, having joined PCG in 1995 after serving as Chief Counsel, Region I, for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for more than 25 years. At PCG, Sam provides legal advice and counsel and has served on many projects that required legal research and interpretation and implementation of many federal and state laws.

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