The Obama administration Friday announced nearly $1 billion in grants to support health information technology development.
The grants, which were announced by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, will be used to support health IT projects and develop the networks to use them as well as to train workers in how to use health IT systems.
Sebelius said the grants, which come as part of the $787 billion economic stimulus and recovery bill enacted last year, would strengthen the health care system and speed the economic recovery.
"The awards we're talking about today total nearly $1 billion and help Americans get the training they need to do the health care jobs of the future," Sebelius said.
She said the awards would also "help them unleash the power of health IT to cut costs, eliminate paperwork and most of all help doctors deliver high quality, coordinated health care."
Some $750 million of the grants will be dedicated to helping doctors and hospitals adopt emerging electronic medical records and other health IT programs, Sebelius said.
Roughly half of that figure will be used to establish regional centers to help train doctors in smaller practices adopt the technology with hands-on support modeled from the Agriculture Department's extension centers that support farmers.
"Even though many doctors around the country can see the potential [benefits], there are also obstacles," Sebelius said. "Health care providers are busy. They don't have time to research all the different record systems, especially if they work in small practices that may not have their own IT staff on board."
She added, "That's where these grants come in. … The centers will be a great, kind of boots on the ground resource for doctors and hospitals, helping them understand which electronic record system might be best for their needs and how to use it most effectively."
The $225 million in Labor Department grants will largely go to training workers for this growing industry, Solis said.
"Career tracks in nursing, information technology and other high growth fields provide both new entrants to the workforce and workers looking for a career change the opportunity to gain employment while continuously working toward a new career," she said.
The funds are designed to train some 47,000 workers, and the community colleges and institutions providing the training have estimated that 10,000 of the workers would have a job lined up for them the day they graduate.
"Given the high amount of growth in these fields, growth that will continue given the investments like the one HHS is announcing today, we're confident that the remaining workers will find jobs quickly," Solis said.
She added, "This administration is focused on creating jobs and the Labor Department will continue to do its part to invest in our most precious resource: American workers."
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.