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Print Edition StoriesWednesday, March 3, 2010
Policy Tracker
Agencies award $1B for health IT; Mass. scores high on environment report card
MHT's Galen Moore: N.E. firms target individual carbon footprints
MHT's Galen Moore: Six Mass. tech firms head to world economic forum
New England prepared to leverage smart grid expertise
Agencies award $1B for health IT, job training
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded $761 million in grants, funded by the economic stimulus bill, to encourage the use of health information technology.
About $386 million will go to state efforts to facilitate the exchange of electronic health records, and another $375 million will go to 32 nonprofit organizations to support the development of regional centers that will help health care providers and hospitals implement health information technology.
“Health information technology can make our health care system more efficient and improve the quality of care we all receive,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “These grant awards, the first of their kind, will help develop our electronic infrastructure and give doctors and other health care providers the support they need as they adopt this powerful technology.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor awarded $225 million in stimulus-funded grants that will go to 55 programs in 30 states to help train people for health care and IT jobs.
— Kent Hoover, ACBJ Wire Service
Mass. delegation scores high on environment report card
Massachusetts’ Congressional delegation earned high marks from environmental advocates for their votes on two-dozen bills on clean energy, climate change, public land use, and water and wildlife conservation.
The Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters, which hosted U.S. Rep. Ed Markey on a conference call last week, gave nine of Massachusetts’ 12 U.S. representatives and senators a perfect score of 100 percent for siding with them on all 24 votes. The group singled out Markey and U.S. Sen. John Kerry for their support of bills to minimize carbon emissions. Only U.S. Reps. Richard Neal, Mike Capuano and Stephen Lynch received less than perfect scores – 93 percent. Only four states scored higher on the House side: Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine and Hawaii. Massachusetts was one of 20 states with “perfect” scores for its Senate delegation.
— State House News Service
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