ONC, SAMHSA Team Up on $20M Behavioral Health IT Initiative
Behavioral Health Business February 9, 2024
Federal agencies are looking to give behavioral health providers a technology boost.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) will invest $20 million over the next three years on a program to help promote IT in behavioral health care settings.
Behavioral health providers have trailed behind their physical health counterparts when implementing electronic health records (EHRs) and other technologies. That is partly because behavioral health providers were left out of the 2009 HITECH Act, which gave health care providers funding to encourage the “meaningful use” of EHRs.
“Lack of access to health IT and associated higher-level capabilities and efficiencies … impact behavioral health providers’ ability to...