HHS awards over $650 million in EHR incentive payments
HHS released the first numbers regarding its Meaningful Use incentives program, established by the HITECH Act of 2009. Unsurprisingly, most eligible professionals and hospitals receiving funds this year qualified for incentive payments under Medicaid, rather than Medicare, because Medicare has a higher threshold for receiving such payments. Medicare requires the eligible professional or hospital to achieve and demonstrate meaningful use, while Medicaid mandates only adoption, implementation or upgrade of existing systems.
Nevertheless, the extent of the disparity was somewhat surprising: only about 6% of eligible hospitals and 3% of eligible professionals qualified for meaningful use incentives under Medicare. Via Modern Healthcare:
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 $389 million. Only $264 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 Aug. 31, 2,054 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. But only 114 of the registered hospitals—less than 6%—have attested to being meaningful users. They have split about $226 million in Medicare EHR incentive payments.
Similarly, for the same period, 71,378 physicians and other "eligible professionals" have registered with the CMS under the Medicare EHR program, but only 2,129—or about 3%—have shared in $38.3 million in Medicare EHR payments. Unlike hospitals, professionals can't participate in both the Medicare and the Medicaid incentive programs. They must choose one.
According to the CMS, 15 hospitals have been paid solely under state-run Medicaid programs; they have received $32.9 million. In addition, 294 hospitals registered as dual-eligibles have been paid $262.2 million by Medicaid. There have been 4,463 physicians and eligible providers paid $93.9 million under Medicaid, according to the CMS.
You can find the CMS summary and charts relating to EHR incentive payments by clicking here.
"CMS: $653 million in EHR incentives paid," Modern Healthcare (September 22, 2011).
CMS announced that the online Attestation System for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program will launch on April 18, 2011. Eligible professionals and eligible hospitals will be able to use this online portal to self-attest to meeting the Meaningful Use criteria.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its report on integrated delivery systems (IDSs) in healthcare. The report found that electronic health record systems (EHRs) are able to improve patient care among such IDSs.
Government Health IT published a column by Steve Fox and yours truly on the critical role Regional Extension Centers (RECs) can and should play in distributing best practices regarding contracting for health IT systems, including EHRs. Via 
According to a new study by the Center for Studying Health System Change, less than 7% of U.S. physicians communicate with their patients via e-mail. According to the .gif){kind=logo}
Via 
Our own Steve Fox was interviewed by 
Via 
CMS launched a very useful 
On July 13, 2010, CMS issued the final rule defining "meaningful use" and establishing the parameters and requirements for eligible professionals, hospitals and other providers to receive incentive payments provided under the HITECH Act for widespread adoption of electronic health records. According to 
On June 18, 2010, the Office of National Coordinator for Health IT issued a final rule, 45 CFR Part 170, establishing a temporary EHR certification program for the purposes of testing and certifying health information technology. 
Both companies are looking to capitalize on the projected exponential growth in adoption of health IT, in part due to the incentives created by ARRA. According to the Congressional Budget Office, adoption of electronic health records by physician practices is expected to increase from 12% in 2011 to 90% by 2019. 
Courtesy of the 
In a letter to Dr. David Blumenthal, the College of Healthcare Information Executives (CHIME), an organization which represents1,400 healthcare chief information officers, offered some criticism of ONC's recent notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding the EHR certification program. While CHIME expressed general support for a two-stage approach for creating the certifying bodies, the CIO's are worried about any destabilizing effects such rule may have on the health IT market. Via 
As if foreshadowing our upcoming 
ONC announced release of the much-anticipated Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on certification programs. Via ONC 
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HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, appearing with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, announced the Obama administration will release almost $1 billion set aside in the stimulus bill in order to aid implementation of health information technology..gif){kind=logo}
CMS released a proposed rule pursuant to the HITECH Act which includes the much-anticipated definition of Meaningful Use of Certified EHR technology. You can find the full text 
On the eve of HHS releasing the much-anticipated definition of "meaningful use," health IT divisions of GE and Siemens revealed new financing options for purchases of their EMR and other HIT products.
ancing solutions to help healthcare providers pursue meaningful use objectives and meet [HITECH Act] deadlines <...> Featuring zero-percent interest terms for qualified customers, the solutions enable organizations to defer up-front payments associated with their technology investment while meeting criteria for future government incentive monies."
The new science of personalized medicine, a new 
Dr. David Blumenthal, the National Coordinator for Health IT, gave an 
According to 
The last few weeks saw a tremendous amount of activity in the health IT market. Dell and Xerox were among the companies trying to capitalize on opportunities created by the ARRA incentives and certain market trends, including high demand for HIT products due to the ongoing digitization of the industry and, more generally, the expanding healthcare needs of an aging population in the United States..jpg){kind=logo}
A mere week following Dell's announcement, Xerox's CEO Ursula M. Burns revealed her company's .gif)
The Washington Post provides an interesting behind-the-scenes account of how the funds for electronic health records adoption were included into the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, commonly known as the stimulus bill. Health Information and Management System Society (HIMSS) played a crucial role in this lobbying effort. According to the Post:
Steve Fox was interviewed in this month's Cover Story "