The federal Department for Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded Kentucky a $4.9 million Medicaid transformation grant to develop the Kentucky Health Information Partnership (K-HIP), which will give doctors and other clinicians secure electronic access to health information to improve the quality and efficiency of health care.

"We need to make health care more affordable for Kentucky families," said Fletcher. "Health care is the only major industry in the America still dominated by inefficient paper processes. Kentucky is at the forefront of a national movement to use technology to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care. This funding will help us make a major advance in our effort to bring lower cost, higher quality health care to Kentucky.”

The project will create a secure, Web-based portal that doctors and other authorized clinicians can use to access information about a patient's medical history, including data about prescriptions, previous treatment, lab and diagnostic test results, immunizations and other basic patient information. While Medicaid will lead K-HIP, the program also involves partnerships with the private provider community, health insurance companies and non-profit groups.

The Medicaid Transformation Grant funding is for two years. At the end of the two years, Kentucky will have deployed a secure portal for providers to access health information while also laying the groundwork for a statewide e-Health Network.

The Kentucky e-Health Network Board, created by Kentucky's landmark e-Health legislation (Senate Bill 2) in 2005, and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) have worked together to lay the groundwork to make K-HIP possible.

“All of us spend too much time filling out forms in the doctor's office and at the hospital when the information is often available electronically elsewhere,” said CHFS Secretary Mark D. Birdwhistell. “We want to ensure that health information is available when needed at the point of care but in a way that protects the privacy and confidentiality of a person's medical information.”

HHS awarded $103 million to Kentucky and 26 other states to improve Medicaid efficiency, economy and quality of care using technology. Congress approved funding for the Medicaid transformation grants in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) to be distributed over fiscal years 2007 and 2008. States will receive the funds over the next two years. No state matching funds are required for these special grants.