Rural health IT initiative supports Georgia providers

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a funding initiative to help rural hospitals in Georgia leverage federal programs to adopt health IT, optimize healthcare delivery and support rural economic development, according to an announcement.

Through HomeTown Health, an organization representing 70 rural and small hospitals located throughout the southeastern United States, the initiative will provide access to health IT capital and streamline the USDA application process for low-cost loans and grants for eligible hospitals.

The assistance will foremost assist critical access hospitals, rural clinics and rural hospitals with meeting Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 1, but also help hospitals that need software and infrastructure upgrades to meet MU Stage 1 or Stage 2 requirements.

The initiative is the first step in the strategic development of the Rural Health IT Collaborative of the Southeast, a network of rural hospitals and healthcare providers, according to HomeTown Health. Overall, in fiscal year 2013 the funding initiative will provide more than $38 million in funding to rural entities across four states.

The announcement took place at the HomeTown Health Rural Hospital Conference at Callaway Gardens in Columbus, Georgia.