President Obama's IT budget for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) totals $7.1 billion for fiscal year 2013, marking a 3 percent increase from FY12.

The IT budget request covers a variety of business functions and plays a pivotal role in supporting the Department’s overall mission to protect the health of all Americans and provide essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves.

[Measures column: Surprising HIT opportunities in Obama's federal budget.]

Here are a few highlights of the IT budget request:

Operating Divisions and Investment Programs

• With an IT budget totaling close to $4 billion, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is the highest funded agency within HHS for FY13. In addition, CMS experienced a $173.6 million, or 5 percent, boost to its IT budget from the previous year.
• The largest item in the FY13 HHS IT budget is dedicated to CMS for providing funds to the States to cover Medicaid systems costs. This single initiative totals approximately $2.4 billion and accounts for 30 percent of the entire FY13 HHS IT budget.
• The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is also a top funded agency with a total IT budget of $862.5 million, of which $803.7 million is budgeted for grants to the States for the federal share of State Medicaid systems costs.
• While the HHS IT budget increased by 3 percent overall, the CDC, NIH, HRSA, and SAMHSA saw decreases of 5 percent or more for FY13.

Business functions

• Of the 64 business sub-functions included in the FY13 HHS IT budget, a majority share of the budget is allocated to support three particular areas: Health Care Administration, IT Infrastructure Maintenance and Social Services. Investments budgeted under these sub-functions total $5.1 billion, approximately 70 percent of the overall FY13 HHS IT budget.
• Major opportunities associated with these sub-functions include the NIH IT Infrastructure program, CMS Quality Program and Administration for Children and Families (ACF) IT grants to the states.

Top 10 Program Insights

• Taken together, the top 10 IT programs for FY13 amounts to $4.6 billion and makes up over 60 percent of the Department’s budget overall.
• Almost all of the top 10 programs received increases in budget from FY12, with the exception of the CMS HIGLAS and Modernized Infrastructure programs which experienced a 14 percent and 1 percent decrease, respectively, during FY13.