The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is providing grants to states in order to fund health information exchange breakthroughs in five challenging areas that will promote sharing of patient records nationwide.

The grants will fund pilots in 10 states and supplement what they have already received for creation of their statewide health information exchanges.

The Health Information Exchange Challenge Program will help states make progress in areas that are considered critical but difficult to advance interoperability, according to an announcement ONC published Dec. 3.

The awards will fund the development of technology and mechanisms in pilot sites. The states will then share them with other states and communities to increase their ability to exchange information nationwide.

The areas of focus include improving long-term and post-acute care transitions through HIE; giving patients access to their own health information; developing tools and approaches to search for and share granular patient data, such as specific lab results for a given time period; and fostering strategies for population-level analysis
Awards will range between $1 million and $2 million each, for a total of $16 million to 10 states.

The grants will be supplemental funding to about $500 million dollars already awarded to states and their designated entities to enable health information exchange. States must apply by Jan. 5.