The state agency also made incorrect incentive payments to 13 eligible professionals totaling $3,250.
The 25 hospitals chosen for audit by the OIG were the highest paid under the program. They received a combined total of nearly $53.2 million.
Medicaid EHR incentive payment programs in several states got out of the gate early in the rollout of the federal initiative that also included Medicare and Medicare Advantage programs, all created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. In the first year, Medicaid providers did not have to meet meaningful-use requirements, only attest that they had adopted, upgraded or implemented EHR systems that had been tested and certified under program guidelines.
Louisiana's program was one of the first among the states to pay incentives, passing through $93 million in Medicaid EHR incentive program payments in 2011. The state Medicaid incentive payments are 100% funded by the federal government, which, under all three programs, has paid out nearly $24.9 billion so far nationwide to more than 410,600 hospitals, physicians and other eligible professionals, according to the latest CMS data.
The watchdog agency recommended the state refund the federal government for the overpayments and adjust the others. It also recommended that the state make further payment adjustments after reviewing its calculations for the remaining recipient hospitals and correcting its formulas for calculating discharge-related and patient volume-related payment amounts. The state agency concurred and has taken corrective measures, the OIG said.
Follow Joseph Conn on Twitter: @MHJConn
