CMS: $7.7 billion in EHR payments through September

More than 300,000 physicians and other eligible professionals have signed up to participate in the federal electronic health-record system incentive payment programs, while more than 4,000 hospitals have enrolled in the Medicare EHR incentive program, the Medicaid incentive program or both, according to the latest CMS data.

In total, $7.7 billion has been paid out in what has been estimated will be $27 billion in incentive payments through the lives of the two programs.

The increase to 303,072 enrolled physicians and other eligible professionals, as listed in the CMS' report through September, represents a 7% jump in total enrollment in a month for the two programs, which were created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Physicians and other eligible professionals can enroll in only one program or the other. Of them, 208,331 have signed up for the program administered through Medicare, while 94,741 have enrolled in the counterpart Medicaid program.

Meanwhile, through September, 4,057 hospitals have registered, up 2% since August, according to the CMS.

Thus far, 82,535 physicians and other eligible professionals have been paid $1.4 billion in incentives under the Medicare EHR program, while 60,208 of their counterparts have been paid $1.2 billion under Medicaid EHR program, according to the CMS.

The two programs have made 4,211 payments totaling nearly $4.9 billion to 3,044 unique hospitals, with almost $2.6 billion paid through Medicare and slightly more than $2.3 billion paid through Medicaid. The number of hospital payments made can exceed the number of hospitals enrolled because hospitals can receive payments under Medicare or Medicaid or both.