Since 2012, HHS and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have invested nearly $1 billion in financing rural health IT projects, according to HHS.
In 2011, President Obama announced the White House Rural Council initiative that aimed to support rural communities adopt health IT systems, as financing is a top-cited challenge for physicians and hospitals serving remote and poor communities.
The total $1 billion in funds from HHS and USDA, the leaders of the initiative, have supported EHR implementations, health information exchanges and telehealth programs in the following 13 states: Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.
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