Mississippi Electronic Health Records Replacement for Small Rural Providers Program (EHR Program)
Funded by the Rural Health Transformation Program, this opportunity offers funding for rural health and mental health providers in Mississippi seeking to adopt electronic health record (EHR) systems or replace outdated or non-interoperable EHR systems.
Program objectives:
- Expand adoption and modernization of EHR systems for independent rural healthcare facilities and providers to improve clinical workflows, operational efficiency, and care delivery
- Strengthen interoperability and connectivity to enable more seamless, secure exchange of clinical information across care settings
- Improve care delivery capabilities through technology-enabled services, including support for telehealth, remote patient monitoring, and related workflow integration
- Enhance quality reporting and data utilization to support performance improvement, regulatory compliance, and better patient outcomes
- Advance readiness for and participation in value-based care models by helping rural providers meet standard technical, reporting, and care coordination requirements
- Build sustainable rural health technology infrastructure and user capacity through system upgrades, training, workflow redesign, and shared technology network participation
Program outcomes:
- Increased adoption of interoperable EHRs among rural and critical access providers
- Upgraded capacity supporting EHR systems
- Reduction in downtime or technical barriers to care delivery
- Enhanced ability to track patient outcomes and manage chronic conditions through shared data
- Reduction in duplicative tests, errors, and administrative inefficiencies
- Increased technical literacy and workforce readiness among rural health staff
- Established the foundation for future participation in value-based care and population health initiatives
Potential uses of funds could include:
- Discovery related to system adoption or upgrades
- Replacement or modernization of electronic medical records (EMR)/EHR systems and related information technology (IT) infrastructure
- Upgrades, enhancements, modules, interfaces, or added functionality to existing EMR/EHR systems
- Implementation of new EHR systems
- Data migration, interoperability testing, and system customization
- User training in new or upgraded systems
- Workflow redesign to optimize EHR utilization
- Purchasing add-on software modules
- Purchasing hardware infrastructure necessary to modernize EHR
- Integrating workflows to allow for ingestion of remote patient monitoring data
- Create or connect to an existing shared technology network
Eligible providers are small providers located in Mississippi, including:
- Rural hospitals
- Critical Access Hospitals
- Independent pharmacies
- Skilled nursing facilities
- Long-term care facilities
- Home health services
- Hospice care providers
- Independent Rural Health Clinics
- Solo/small group physician and dental practices
- Independent behavioral health clinics
- Tribal and Indian Health Services (IHS)-operated clinics
- Other community-based rural clinics
For purposes of the program, a small provider is defined as an independent rural healthcare practice or facility that is not owned or controlled by a large health system and meets at least one of the following criteria:
- Licensed for 60 or fewer inpatient beds
- Has 50 or fewer licensed, full-time healthcare professionals
- Demonstrates limited existing health IT capacity, including use of outdated or minimally interoperable EHR technology
The program will prioritize funding based on the following criteria:
- Those without any EHR system
- Those with an existing EHR system converting to HITECH-certified EHR system
- Those with an existing EHR system in need of an upgrade
- Those with an existing HITECH-certified EHR system in need of an upgrade
Award ceiling: Not stated
Project period: Through July 31,
2027
Estimated total program funding:
$9,500,000
Links to additional guidance, application instructions, and the online application portal are available on the program website.
For complete information about funding programs, including your
application status, please contact funders directly. Summaries are provided
for your convenience only. RHIhub does not take part in application processes
or monitor application status.