Business
Highmark offers tech grants
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted July 7, 2008
After a nearly three-year delay, Highmark, the Pittsburgh-based BlueCross BlueShield plan, will start to disperse grants this summer totaling up to $29 million to help physicians adopt electronic health records and e-prescribing technology.
The insurer initially made the grant announcement in November 2005, but has been awaiting approval from the Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt status for the Highmark eHealth Collaborative, the nonprofit group Highmark organized to facilitate the grant program. Due to the IRS's delay, the company decided to disperse the money directly, instead of through the collaborative.
The grants will pay up to 75% of the costs of adopting and implementing the technology, up to $7,000, for each physician whose grant is approved. Highmark has been accepting grant applications for the last 2½ years and grant requests will be considered in the order in which they were received.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/07/07/bibf0707.htm.
