Regional Centers – a new organization to help physicians with EHRs

One of the parts of the HITECH section of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provides for the establishment of HIT-Extension Regional Centers. These new organizations are intended to provide technical support and guidance for physician practices as they move toward adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs).

These Regional Centers have not yet been put into place – the Funding Opportunity Announcement and Grant Application Instructions were announced Aug 20, 2009. Organizations interested in serving in this capacity are expected to submit their proposals to the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC). Awardee selection is expected in 3 cycles – on December 11, 2009, April 27, 2010, and September 28, 2010. Approximately $600 million is available for the establishment of these Regional Centers.

The purpose of these Regional Centers is to furnish assistance (defined as education, outreach, and technical assistance) to help providers in their geographic service areas select, successfully implement, and meaningfully use certified EHR technology, to improve the quality and value of health care. HITECH requires that priority be given to providers that are in primary care, and especially solo and small group practices (10 or fewer clinician), public and Critical Access Hospitals, community health centers and rural health clinics, and other settings that mainly serve the uninsured, underinsured or medically underserved populations.

On-site technical assistance will be a key service offered by Regional Centers to primary-care providers. They are expected to work with (1) priority primary-care providers who have not yet adopted an EHR, and (2) priority primary-care providers who have an existing EHR and who want to achieve “meaningful use” of their certified EHR.

Regional Centers are intended to help practices select EHR systems, hardware and network infrastructure, and IT services. This has been historically onerous for practices that attempt to implement the large, legacy client/server systems that have dominated the marketplace heretofore. And it is this landscape which the ONC and the Regional Centers are built to address. Practice Fusion, by virtue to being web-based, hosted, and free, dramatically reduces the risk for a practice (especially a small, primary care practice) in their move to adopt a certified EHR. Remember that “certification” means HHS Certification, which is a new term – and, given that the criteria for HHS Certification have yet to be finalized, no EHR vendor is yet “certified.”


Practice Fusion welcomes the advent of Regional Centers, and their stated mission to “help providers select the highest-value option.” We believe that Practice Fusion will offer clear advantages in terms of usability, interoperability and affordability. Regional Centers, which are intended to help practices with end-to-end implementation project management (a very short cycle with Practice Fusion), will also help practices with Workflow Redesign. For practices that implement Practice Fusion as their certified EHR, the Regional Center can function as a step-by-step guide as practices move from paper to an electronic platform.

Robert Rowley, MD – Chief Medical Officer, Practice Fusion, Inc.