CMS gives $6.6M to six states for EHR federal matching funds

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will give a total of $6.6 million in federal matching funds to six states' Medicaid programs for planning activities necessary to implement the EHR incentive program established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

According to the agency, the states that will receive the federal matching funds are:

• Utah: $396,000;
• Wyoming: $596,000;
• Nevada: $1.05 million;
• Mississippi: $1.47 million;
• Colorado: $798,000; and
• North Carolina: $2.29 million.

ARRA provides a 90 percent federal match for state planning activities to administer the incentive payments to Medicaid providers, to ensure their proper payments through audits and to participate in statewide efforts to promote interoperability and meaningful use of EHR technology statewide and, eventually, across the U.S., CMS said.

The states will use their federal matching funds for planning activities that include conducting an analysis to determine the current status of health IT activities in the state, according to the agency. As part of that process, these six states will gather information on issues such as existing barriers to its use of EHRs, provider eligibility for EHR incentive payments and the creation of a State Medicaid Health IT Plan, which will define the state’s intentions for its long-term health IT use.