MU incentives top $19B

The numbers keep climbing. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has paid out $19.2 billion to 440, 998 registered providers participating in the federal EHR incentive program as of the end of 2013.

Approximately 88 percent of all eligible hospitals have received an EHR incentive payment so far, reported Robert Anthony, deputy director of the CMS Office of E-Health Standards and Service at Tuesday's Health IT Policy Committee meeting.

In addition, Anthony reported that as of Dec. 31, 2013, nearly 9 out of 10 eligible hospitals have made a financial commitment to an EHR. Approximately 60 percent, or 3 out of every 5 Medicare eligible providers (EPs), are meaningful users of EHRs. Twenty percent of Medicaid EPs are meaningful users and approximately 78 percent, or nearly 4 out of every 5, Medicaid EPs have received an EHR incentive payment.

Almost 63 percent, or 3 out of every 5 Medicare and Medicaid EPs have made a financial commitment to an EHR and more than 340,000 Medicare and Medicaid EPs have received an EHR incentive payment.

CMS also released the results of a 2013 National Electronic Health Records Survey, which revealed that of the physicians who intend to participate in the Meaningful Use program, 19 percent had adopted all 14 of the 17 Stage 2 Core objectives.