The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) paid out more than $22.9 billion in incentive payments over the first four years of its electronic health record (EHR) incentive programs, CMS officials said on Tuesday.
In a presentation to the U.S. government's HIT Policy Committee, CMS shared statistics from the EHR, or "meaningful use," programs through March 2014. As of March, 371,673 Medicare- and Medicaid-eligible professionals and eligible hospitals have received EHR incentive payments.
In addition, 90.8% of the 4,993 total eligible U.S. hospitals have received incentive payments, according to the agency. CMS said that 68% of Medicare- and Medicaid-eligible professionals have made a financial commitment to implementing an EHR. In the 2013 reporting year, 64,000 new participants attested for meaningful use.
Through May 1, 2014, 225 eligible professionals attested for meaningful use for the 2014 reporting year, 61 of whom are new participants. In addition, 30 eligible hospitals have attested, eight of which are new participants. However, only 50 of the eligible professionals and four eligible hospitals have attested for stage 2 for the 2014 reporting year.
The HIT Policy Committee makes recommendations on health IT policy issues to the National Coordinator for Health IT.
