The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Thursday awarded four contracts totaling $18.6 million to health care and health IT groups to develop prototypes for a nationwide health IT network. The groups - which are led by Accenture, Computer Sciences, IBM and Northrop Grumman - include technology developers and providers. The winners will develop an architecture and prototype network for secure, electronic information-sharing among hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies and physicians. The contract stipulates that Northrop Grumman in California and Ohio will work with University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland among others in implementing the prototype. The Cleveland Clinic Foundation and MetroHealth will also participate in the project. Each group will test patient identification and record locator services, user authentication and other technologies. The government does not plan to mandate a single network for exchanging information, but it wants to avoid developing networks that are not interoperable. HHS had planned to award six contracts for the development of a nationwide health information network prototype but awarded only four because of uncertainty over health IT funding in the fiscal year 2006 budget. Additional contracts could be awarded in the future if Congress grants the requested $125 million for health care IT projects.