Maryland is one of only a handful of states selected by the federal government to receive millions of dollars in grants to set up IT infrastructure to support the health exchanges that will be required under federal law to be implemented by 2014. As reported by the Baltimore Sun: 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will announce Wednesday that Maryland will receive $6.2 million to help create a health exchange that health officials hope will be a model for other states. Six others states are sharing in a total of $241 million in grants.

Under health care reform everybody will be required to buy health insurance. For those who don’t get it through employers, states will set up exchanges where small businesses and individuals could buy insurance at competitive rates…

HHS officials said they chose Maryland because it had already made strides toward creating an exchange. Other states that received grants were Kansas, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon and Wisconsin. Massachusetts will lead a consortium of states in New England in developing a system.