HITPC: CMS reports $633M in 2013 EHR payments
As of May, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has doled out $633.7 million this year in EHR incentive payments with the total amount paid to date at $15.1 billion, CMS Health Insurance Specialist Robert Anthony told the Health IT Policy Committee at its July 9 meeting.
Recipients totaled 297,501 unique Medicare and Medicaid eligible professionals (EPs) and hospitals, Anthony said. “We’re just shy of 300,000,” he said, noting that it may not exceed this milestone until after the slower summer season.
In all, he said about eight out of ten hospitals are receiving payments in the program for either Meaningful Use or Adoption, Implementation or Upgrade. In other stats:
- Approximately 56 percent of Medicare EPs and 11 percent of Medicaid EPs are meaningful users
- Approximately 63 percent of all Medicaid EPs have received an EHR incentive payment
- More than 53 percent of Medicaid and Medicare EPs have made a financial commitment to an EHR
- 195,124 Medicare EPs and 3,046 hospitals have successfully attested
Also in his report, Anthony said that drug formulary, immunization registry and patient list are the most popular menu objectives for Medicare EPs while transition of care and reportable lab results remained the least popular.