Health IT Law Blog : Health IT Law Blog : Post & Schell: Law Firm : HIT & Electronic Health Records

 Via Healthcare IT News:

The Spending Reduction Act of 2011 (H.R. 408), introduced on January 24 by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), seeks to reduce federal spending by $2.5 trillion over the coming decade. As it does so, it singles out many federal programs for elimination.

Section 302 of the bill, titled "REPEAL OF CERTAIN STIMULUS PROVISIONS," states that "effective on the date of the enactment of this Act, subtitles B and C of title II and titles III through VII of division B of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5) are repealed, and the provisions of law amended or repealed by such provisions of division B are restored or revived as if such provisions of division B had not been enacted."

Since the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs set up under the ARRA/HITECH Act of 2009 fall under division B, it would appear that the $27 billion earmarked for disbursement to healthcare providers to spurring EHR adoption would fall on the chopping block were the bill to ever pass.

For good measure, Jordan's Republican Study Committee also decrees that the enacted legislation would "further prohibit any FY 2011 funding from being used to carry out any provision of the Democrat government takeover of health care, or to defend the health care law against any lawsuit challenging any provision of the act.

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Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) opened the registration process for eligible hospitals and professionals hoping to capitalize on the incentive payments provided under the HITECH Act.  Each such hospital or professional needs to register with CMS in order to receive such payments, and CMS encourages all eligible healthcare providers to register as soon as possible.

You can find the EHR Incentives Program registration page by clicking here.

According to Government Health IT, over 4,000 providers have already registered with CMS. Several states have also launched registrations for their Medicaid incentive programs.  Moreover, hospitals in Oklahoma and Kentucky have already begun receiving incentive payments:

Kentucky processed payment to the University of Kentucky Healthcare, the university’s teaching hospital, for $2.86 million. The first payment amounts to one- third of the hospital’s overall expected amount for participating in the program, according to CMS. Oklahoma issued payments to two physicians at the Gastorf Family Clinic of Durant, Okla., for $21,250 each for having adopted certified EHRs.

Besides Kentucky and Oklahoma, registration is available for the Medicaid EHR incentive program in Alaska, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

In February, registration will open in California, Missouri, and North Dakota. Other states will likely launch their Medicaid EHR incentive programs during the spring and summer of 2011.

You can learn more about registration for Medicare incentives for eligible professionals by clicking here; and for Medicaid incentives for eligible professionals by clicking here. A similar CMS guide for both Medicare and Medicaid incentives for eligible hospitals can be found here.

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