GAO report: $6.3B for MU in 2012

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) offers details about the $6.3 billion in EHR incentive payments disbursed to eligible hospitals and medical professionals participating in the Meaningful Use program.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2012 disbursed incentive payments to 2,291 hospitals totaling $3.5 billion, up from $1.3 billion paid to 777 hospitals in 2011, accoridng to the GAO report. Incentive payments for hospitals ranged from $4,827 to $4.7 million, with a median payment of $1.4 million.

Hospitals in rural areas were 3.1 times more likely to receive an incentive payment in 2012 than they were in 2011.

The report found that of the hospitals who received incentive payments in 2012:

• 61 percent were located in urban areas;
• 39 percent were located in the South; and
• 15 percent were located in the West.

The report also found that general practice physicians were 1.5 times more likely than specialty practice physicians to have been awarded an incentive payment in 2012; and medical professionals with the lowest amount of Medicare Part B charges were 3.3 times more likely to have received an incentive payment in 2012 than in 2011.

According to the report, CMS has paid out $8.6 billion of the $30 billion allocated for the EHR incentive program since it launched in 2010.

Read the entire report.