WASHINGTON – Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record payments are approaching $7 billion since the program's beginning, with $6.9 billion paid out to 143,800 physicians and hospitals in total program estimates through the end of August.
Final figures will be available later this month as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid captures more complete data.
In August, the agency paid about $500 million in incentives, with about $325 million going to Medicare providers and $175 million to Medicaid providers, “which will bring us knocking on the door of $7 billion in incentive payments issued as of the end of last month,” said Robert Anthony, a specialist in CMS’ Office of eHealth Standards and Services.
As of July, nearly one of five Medicare eligible provider, or about 18 percent are meaningful users of EHRs., he said. Additionally, one of every five Medicare and Medicaid eligible providers has made a financial commitment to an EHR, he said. And 55 percent of eligible hospitals have received an EHR incentive payment for meaningful use.
As of July, 271,105 Medicare and Medicaid physicians and hospitals have registered to participate in the incentive program, tracking at about 10,300 monthly, he said. Breaking down the total, that’s 180,513 Medicare physicians, 86,708 Medicaid clinicians and 3,884 hospitals.
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