CMS: $872 million in IT incentives paid

The federal government paid out more than $872 million for electronic health-record system incentive payments to programs under Medicare and Medicaid by the end of September, according to a federal official.

The programs, created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, have registered 114,644 organizations or individual providers through Sept. 30, Robert Anthony, a health insurance specialist at the CMS, told an advisory committee Wednesday.

So far, Medicaid program payments for hospitals, physicians and other eligible professionals that have adopted, implemented or upgraded to a certified EHR system have totaled $515 million. Only $357 million has been paid under the Medicare program, which has a higher eligibility threshold, requiring providers to demonstrate that they are meaningfully using their certified EHR system.

Through September, 2,396 hospitals have registered with the CMS to receive Medicare incentive payments. Hospitals that registered as dual-eligibles need to attest to having met meaningful-use targets under the Medicare portion of the program. Only 302 of the registered hospitals have successfully attested as meaningful users so far, although no hospital has failed to meet that standard.

Similarly, for the same period, 88,255 physicians and other "eligible professionals" have registered with the CMS under the Medicare EHR program. And among the 8,397 that have attested to meeting meaningful-use standards, 396 were found not to have met those standards. There were no obvious commonalities among the rejected providers, but the CMS will continue to analyze this group, Anthony said.