Since the launch in 2012 of President Barack Obama's White House Rural Council initiative, $1 billion has been invested across 13 states to help health systems with health IT goals, according to National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo.
The investments were funded by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture, and helped hospitals move to electronic health records, offer telehealth services and more, according to a post on ONC's Health IT Buzz blog.
Through the initiative, ONC also held workshop groups with a goal of bringing federal and private partners together to find ways to help rural communities get financing they need for health IT endeavors, DeSalvo and Brandon McBride, an administrator of Rural Utilities Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wrote. Post