An estimated 219,257 hospitals, office-based physicians and other eligible professionals have shared in just over $12.3 billion in federal electronic health-record incentive payments under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, according to government figures through February.
The CMS, which operates EHR incentive payment programs under Medicare, Medicaid and Medicare Advantage, reported that $725 million was spent on incentives by the programs in February alone.
Thus far, 3,757 hospitals, or 75% of the 5011 U.S. hospitals that are eligible to receive federal funds under the program, have received an EHR incentive payment, according to the CMS February “draft estimates.”
Meanwhile, 215,500 physicians and other EPs, or 41% of the 527,200 total physicians and other professionals deemed eligible to participate, have been paid. Some 85% of hospitals and 70% of physicians/EPs are registered under the programs, the CMS reports.
Registrations by physicians and EPs under the Medicare program are outrunning Medicaid registrations by better than 2-to-1, or 48% of all physicians and EPs are registered under the Medicare EHR incentive payment program compared with just under 22% for the Medicaid program.
According to the latest estimates, the government is expected to pay out $22.5 billion over the lives of the two programs.
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