The Obama administration on Friday announced nearly $1 billion in federal grants to advance health IT adoption and workforce development.

The bulk of the money--more than $750 million--comes from HHS, including $375 million for the establishment of 32 regional extension centers. HHS also is giving $386 million to 40 states and other entities to encourage state-level health information exchanges. "These grant awards, the first of their kind, will help develop our electronic infrastructure and give doctors and other health care providers the support they need as they adopt this powerful technology," Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a written statement.

This is the first batch of awards for extension centers; HHS will create a total of about 70 such centers, with the second group to be announced in the next month or two.

Another $225 million is being funneled through the Department of Labor to help train 15,000 healthcare and health IT professionals. Those grants will support 55 educational programs in 30 states.

All the money is authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

For more information:
- take a look at this DailyTech story
- see this HHS press release, including the complete list of awardees

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