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EHR PilotEHR Pilot Project Achieves Fundraising Goal, Five Practices Awarded Grants
VITL's EHR Pilot Project, which will help Vermont independent primary care physicians purchase electronic health records systems, has reached its goal of raising $1 million. Five Vermont primary care practices have been awarded grants under the pilot project.
In Act 70 of the 2007 legislative session, the Vermont General Assembly established an Interim Technology Fund for the pilot project, and set the goal of raising $1 million in voluntary contributions. The legislation directed Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc. (VITL), a non-profit public-private partnership, to work with Vermont’s secretary of administration to raise funds for the pilot project “from a broad range of stakeholders who would benefit from electronic health records.”
Commitments for contributions to the fund were received from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont, CIGNA, MVP Health Care, the Office of Vermont Health Access (OVHA), and the Community Grant Foundation of the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems.
“I would like to thank all the contributors to the Interim Technology Fund for recognizing the importance of this pilot project and for supporting it financially,” said Rep. Steven Maier, chair of the House Committee on Health Care. “Electronic health records are critically important to improving health care. They should also decrease administrative hassles and lower costs over time. The pilot project will enable Vermont to take a major step towards implementing these systems.”
“VITL will be working closely with independent primary care physicians in small practices around Vermont to implement electronic health records, thanks to the generous support of contributors to the Interim Technology Fund,” said VITL President Gregory Farnum. “Not only will VITL be providing grants to purchase systems, we’ll be helping physician practices to take advantage of EHR functions, to increase efficiency and improve the quality of care.”
Grant Recipients Announced
The $1 million in commitments to the Interim Technology Fund will be used to support VITL’s EHR Pilot Project. VITL used a competitive process to award grants to five independent Vermont primary care practices, and will work with the selected practices to implement electronic health record systems in their facilities.
Under the pilot project, grants of up to $45,000 per provider FTE will be made to each practice. Practices will pay up to 25 percent of the cost of an electronic health record system. VITL expects to provide assistance for a total of 18 provider FTEs under the pilot project.
The initial grant recipients are:
- Bennington Family Practice, Bennington
- Brookside Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, Bennington
- Mad River Integrative Medicine, Waitsfield
- Mt. Anthony Primary Care, Bennington
- Northern Tier Center for Health, Richford
The experience and information gained from working with pilot project sites will help VITL accelerate the adoption of electronic health records at other Vermont physician offices in the future.
More than 30 applications for grants were received from independent primary care practices in Vermont. A selection committee reviewed the applications and selected the grant recipients.
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