HITPC: Medicaid MU participation higher than anticipated

Meaningful Use (MU) registration and attestation numbers focused on Medicaid eligible professionals (EPs) during the April 7 Health IT Policy Committee meeting because they are registering to participate at a higher level than was initially anticipated by the federal government. However, Medicare EPs have higher MU attestation rates than Medicaid registrants, according to new data from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC).

ONC’s Dawn Heisey-Grove said the estimate from the MU Stage 2 rule published in 2012 projected 145,000 Medicaid EPs, but the actual number is now up to 176,000 registrants. Those registration rates have not yet plateaued, she added.

Meanwhile, the original estimate for Medicare EPs was 393,000 and the actual number is 369,000 registrants. The total number of EPs registered for both Medicare and Medicaid was initially projected at 538,000 but has climbed to 546,000 registrants.

“Most of that increase is by Medicaid professionals,” Heisey-Grove said.

“If you look at registration as a marker of intent to participate in the program, we see an ongoing increasing trend in that participation rate,” said Heisey-Grove. That higher-than-anticipated Medicaid participation rate “will have impacts as we look through the program going forward, because Medicaid providers are on different timelines than Medicare.”

Medicaid EPs can sign on to MU as late as 2016 and receive incentive payments through 2021 but 2014 is the last year for Medicare EPs to begin the program and receive incentive payments with 2016 as the final year that incentives may be paid.

Medicare EP registrants have a higher rate of successful attestation, Heisey-Grove said. “Only about 32 percent of all Medicaid registered eligible professionals have achieved Meaningful Use compared to 86 percent of the Medicare providers.”

During the discussion after Heisey-Grove’s presentation, Paul Egerman, a member of the HIT Policy Committee, expressed concern for the disparity. “This program is helping the rich get richer. People who have the IT structures are able to get more of the incentive money than the institutions of the poorer population because they do not have that same capability,” he said.

Heisey-Grove acknowledged that “this population needs extra assistance” and ONC is considering the best ways to deliver that assistance. One important path is Regional Extension Centers (RECs) because entities that have received assistance from RECs have experienced higher rates of successful attestation.