CMS issues first EHR payments

Just days after the CMS opened registration for the Medicare and Medicaid electronic health-record incentive programs, the first provider payments have been issued.

The state of Kentucky processed a $2.86 million payment to the University of Kentucky Healthcare, amounting to one-third of total payments for the hospital's participation in the Medicaid EHR incentive program. And Oklahoma issued payments to two physicians at the Gastorf Family Clinic of Durant, Okla., for $21,250 each, for having adopted certified EHR systems, also under the Medicaid incentive program.

Funding for the incentive payments programs was made available through the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Registration for the program opened Jan. 3.