Last week CMS announced that the Medicare incentive payments for successful participation in the EHR incentive program were being distributed. One week later my wife’s practice received an $18,000 EHR HITECH Incentive Payment. CMS earlier had stated the payments could be expected to arrive between 4–6 weeks after successfully attesting to meaningful use. I was a bit skeptical about this timeline, but indeed the incentive arrived 5 weeks after completing the attestation process.
How the Payments Are Made
Payment is made to the taxpayer identification number entered by the provider during registration and the funds are delivered the same way you currently receive payments for Medicare services (either by check or via electronic funds transfer). Note the incentive payment is 75% of the provider’s allowable Medicare charges. The maximum allowable charges for the incentive in year one is $24,000. Why bring this up? CMS will wait to send your incentive payment until your allowable Medicare charges cross the $24,000 threshold. For the typical full-time nephrologist this occurred in January. But for those practices with part-time providers, it may take longer to reach this threshold.
A Look at the Numbers
As of April 11, CMS reported that over 42,000 eligible professionals had registered for the EHR incentive program with approximately 2,000 taking the Medicaid path. After registering over 20,000 providers in January, the registration rate now appears to be running just under 10,000 providers per month. In the same report CMS notes that more than $83 million in incentives have been paid to date including $17 million to eligible professionals (like nephrologists). These monetary figures only include eligible professionals who have taken the Medicaid path; the payments for those participating in the Medicare path are just beginning to be dispersed.
Tweaking the Process in Year Two
What changes after successfully attesting to meaningful use in year one? I suppose that will vary around the country, but for most little will change. Practices will likely continue to use problem lists and medication lists. Vital signs and patient demographics will continue to be captured in the EHR. Patients will be asked about smoking status, and providers in the habit of e-prescribing will most likely continue (although perhaps not quite as diligently). In my wife’s practice the only noticeably difference is they have stopped printing the clinical summary following each office encounter. The practice and patients found these less useful than I would have predicted.
The Payoff Is Worth the Effort
It took a bit of effort to demonstrate meaningful use, but the year one payoff eases the pain of that effort. My wife’s practice developed a better understanding of what’s required, and they will be ready for year two. Stage 1 is indeed characterized by “baby steps.” ONCs expectation is these small steps will lay the foundation for wider adoption of technology which will lead to improved health care outcomes several years from now. We are interested in learning about your experiences with this process. Please leave a comment below and join the conversation.
Randy Gertner says
Our new physician started on July 15th, and attested on October 13th. However, under the status it says “disbursed amount $0, and calculated payment $0.”
Is that because all of his charges have not hit the medicare system yet? Are we ok, or should we investigate the cause of this. I recall in an earlier post that you stated medicare holds the disbursement until a threshold is achieved in terms of claims submitted.
Looking forward to a blog on the new ACO rule. If memory serves, the ruling is some 650+ pages. Grab th coffee and the boredom buster pills. Happy reading Terry!