BEI HIT Blog
Government HealthIT, April 20, 2012
BEI Commentary: Here are the current statistics on the number of physicians registered for Meaningful Use and collecting incentive payments.
The Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record program has paid $4.5 billion to 76,612 physicians and hospitals in incentive payments through March 2012.
Of that amount, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services paid out $339.9 million for Medicare eligible providers, according to its latest data.
Fewer Medicare physicians attested and received payments in March than the previous month because the end of February was the cut-off date to be considered part of calendar 2011. However, the 8,651 physicians in March was an increase over January’s 7,668 doctors who received incentives. In February, 12,356 Medicare physicians obtained their payments. The number of hospitals that collected Medicare incentives, however, continued to increase in March to 115 from 84 in February. Read More
Government Health IT, February 6, 2012
We get asked a lot if the budget deficit proposals will affect the Meaningful Use incentive programs. Our opinion is no, in that EHRs and HIT are a bipartisan issue in this era of hyperpartisanship. This article seems to buttress our opinion.
Healthcare reform is arguably the hot-button political issue of our time. And with the Supreme Court locked and loaded to decide the fate of the Affordable Care Act this summer, it’s a safe bet the controversial two-year-old legislation will have a huge impact on the 2012 election and beyond.
But what about health IT? If “Obamacare” has been a lightning rod, sparking historically nasty partisan bickering – Congress vs. President Obama, Republicans vs. Democrats, Fox News vs. MSNBC, the Tea Party vs. MoveOn.org – Washington’s efforts to spur healthcare information technology have enjoyed much broader support, on both sides of the aisle. Read More
Government HealthIT, October 5, 2011
BEI Commentary: The registration and attestation numbers continue to move up at a healthy clip. Of interest is the fact that providers are generally greatly exceeding the thresholds on various Core and Menu Set Measures.
The number of physicians and hospitals that have registered for the Medicare or Medicaid electronic health record (EHR) incentive program has surpassed 100,000, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
As of the end of September, 88,399 physicians and hospitals have signed up for the Medicare program, 24,030 for the Medicaid program and 2,215 hospitals that are eligible for both incentive programs, for a total of 114,644 registrants. In August, the count was 90,000. Thirty-three states have opened their Medicaid EHR incentive programs. Read More
