Highmark to give ’cyber’ funds to doctors

After three years of waiting for the IRS to approve its mechanism for disbursing millions in grants to Pittsburgh-area physicians to help them upgrade their electronic record-keeping capabilities, Highmark has announced it is tweaking the plan to get around the need for IRS clearance. In 2005, Highmark announced plans to establish a $26.5 million fund that would have distributed grants of up to $7,000. Physicians were to use the money to invest in electronic record-keeping technology. But because the money was funneled through the eHealth Collaborative before reaching the doctors, the collaborative needed to obtain tax-exempt, charitable status from the IRS.