Funding Opportunities for Building Data Connections Between EMS and Healthcare Partners

Establishing data connections between EMS, hospitals and other healthcare organizations could greatly improve patient care by allowing EMS clinicians to view a patient’s past medical history and by providing hospital staff with more accurate and accessible information about what EMS saw and did in the field. Earlier this year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a guidance letter that allows the use of Health Information Technology for Economics and Clinical Health (HITECH) funds for expenditures related to electronically connecting eligible providers to other Medicaid providers, including EMS, to share health information. Learn more about the HITECH Act and the implications of the CMS guidance letter, how to leverage Medicaid HITECH funding and what EMS activities may be eligible for those funds.

Presenters:

Thomas Novak, Medicaid Interoperability Lead, Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services
Rachel Abbey, MPH, Program Officer, Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Noah Smith, MPH, EMT, NHTSA’s Office of EMS