Acceleration of CMS EHR payments

Payment Statistics for CMS EHR Incentives for Eligible Professionals

The proof is in the pudding. The case of CMS EHR incentive programs continue to produce remarkable statistics that demonstrate that Health Information Technology is being adopted.

The rate of EPs (eligible professionals) receiving Stage 1 Medicare incentives continues to accelerate. In May a total of 281 EPs received $5,058,000. In October that number had climbed to more than 2,000 EPs who received $36,594,000.

As of October Medicare has paid out a YTD total of $104,490,000 to EPs. These are the early adopters who are meeting Stage 1 meaningful use requirements in 2011 and have successful registered, attested, and received payments. Over 135,00 EPs have registered for one of the two incentive programs.

Though not every state has begun payments to Medicaid incentives these numbers are equally impressive. As of October Medicaid YTD payments total $182,565,925 to 8684 EPs. CMS also provides the ability to see which specific Medicare EPs have been paid incentives.

2011 has been a strong first year for EHR adoption based on these numbers and 2012 should see the incentive program hitting on all eight cylinders as Medicare EPs race to meet Stage 1 and obtain maximum incentives.