Feds take critical look at meaningful use payments

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched a wide-ranging review of government incentive payments to physicians and hospitals for the Meaningful Use of electronic health records. In addition, OIG is looking at whether providers have used EHRs to facilitate "upcoding" of Medicare charges. According to OIG, the latter part of its investigation is not related to the recent letters to HHS from Republican lawmakers to the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT, in which leading Congressmen and Senators asked for the suspension of EHR incentive payments.