The federal government recently awarded $103 million in Medicaid grants to programs in 27 states. The money will be used to fund more widespread use of electronic healthcare records, improve collection of owed amounts from estates, and other efforts to improve quality of care.

Congress approved a total of $150 million in these Medicaid “transformation grants” as part of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. They will be distributed over fiscal years 2007 and 2008. Some states, which submitted more than one proposal, will receive multiple grants.

Later this year, the Department of Health and Human Services will award the remaining $47 million. Among other goals, the grants can be used to cut patient error rates through technology implementation; improve collection of owed amounts from estates; reduce waste, fraud, and abuse; boost utilization of generic drugs; and other efforts.

A detailed list of the grants is at http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2007pres/20070125.html.