Government Health IT and iHealthBeat Daily News are reporting that last week the House approved $111.7M to support programs backed by the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONCHIT).
The articles, report that the $111.7M funding is less than the $125M requested by President Bush but $16M more than the Senate version of the bill. The article by Government Health IT states, "This increase of the original Senate mark for ONCHIT also validates the possibility that HHS could award additional National Health Information Network (NHIN) contracts."
In November, ONCHIT awarded four contracts to develop national health information network prototypes worth a total of $18.6 million, including one contract involving West Virginia's eHealth Initiative. Originally ONCHIT had planned to awared six contracts.
