ONCHIT budget stays flat again this year

An appropriations bill passed by the House and Senate and signed by President Bush leaves the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology with a budget of $61.3 million for the current fiscal year--the same amount it received for fiscal 2007. Asked about the ramifications of working with a flat budget rather than the much larger one the administration had requested, the national coordinator for health IT said it means the ONCHIT will not be able to accelerate in the ways it had hoped or start certain new projects.