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Update on meaningful use, EHR incentives
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by Jeff Grant
This article was published as part of a blog series on electronic health records and the optometric practice.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services still hasn’t released the final rule for stage 2 of meaningful use. I've blogged here extensively about what the proposed rule included and the likelihood that many of the major provisions will make it into the final rule. I'm hearing that the final rule should be released early in July, so I will provide you with a summary as soon as it becomes available.
The EHR incentive has been available for almost a year and a half (eligible professionals that qualified began receiving Medicaid incentive payments in January 2011), and I thought it might be interesting to let you know where we stand in regard to payments and registrations as of the end of May 2012.
There are 163,748 Medicare eligible professionals registered, 7,236 of whom are optometrists. There are 81,029 Medicaid eligible professionals registered.
Payments of $994,993,305 have been made to 58,530 Medicare eligible professionals, of which $37,565,687 has gone to 2,394 optometrists and $20,850,021 has gone to 1,181 ophthalmologists.
Payments of $851,916,194 have gone to 40,700 Medicaid eligible professionals.
Total payments to eligible professionals and hospitals (Medicare and Medicaid incentives included) are $5,761,025,083.
This information is available at: https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/Downloads/Monthly_Payment_Reports_May_2012-.pdf.