Federal Grants Will Help Marin Health Centers Make IT Enhancements

MARIN COUNTY, CA — U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, announced this week that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration has awarded $931,151 in federal funds across the 2nd Congressional District — $221,266 in Marin County alone — to support health information technology enhancements for these health centers.

“Federal funding for community health centers is essential for the health and well-being of the people of California’s North Coast,” Huffman said. “This vital support will enable health centers to modernize the technology they use each day to deliver better care, smarter spending, and — most importantly — healthier people. While this funding is an important step forward on health IT, more support is clearly needed, and I will continue to advocate so that community health centers can continue to provide top-notch care.”

The funding, awarded as part of the Affordable Care Act’s Community Health Center Fund, will allow 15 health centers in the North Coast — four in Marin County — to accelerate their transition to value-based models of care, improve efforts to share and use information to support better decisions, and increase engagement in delivery system transformation.

Here are the grants awarded in Marin County:

• Coastal Health Alliance, Point Reyes Station, $47,033
• Marin City Health and Wellness Center, Marin City, $42,908
• Marin Community Clinic, San Rafael, $89,577
• Ritter Center, San Rafael, $41,748

Also see: Rep. Huffman Announces Federal Grants to San Rafael, Marin Local Health Centers

The grants are part of more than $87 million in funding for 1,310 health centers in every U.S. state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the Pacific Basin, and mark the first significant federal investment since 2009 directly awarded to health centers to support the purchase of health information technology, according to HHS.

Image via Daniel Sone/National Institutes of Health, Wikimedia, public domain