Doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers have so far received $3.12 billion in incentive payments for adopting meaningful use measures for health information technology, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Friday.
More than 2,000 hospitals and 41,000 doctors have received payments, and Sebelius pointed to a survey by the American Hospital Association indicating that the percent of hospitals adopting electronic health record technology "has more than doubled" from 16% to 35% between 2009 and 2011. A large portion of that occurred within the last few months.
In January alone, the federal government paid out $519 million to eligible providers. Electronic health record incentive payments could total as much as $44,000 under the Medicare Electronic Health Record Incentive Program, and $63,750 under the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program.
The flurry of recent activity is likely due to the fact that doctors and hospitals have deadlines. Doctors must register for attestation for meaningful use under Stage 1 by February 29, 2012 to receive their incentive payment for the first year, said Jeff Smith, assistant director of advocacy for CHIME, College of Healthcare Information Management Executives. For hospitals the deadline was November 30, 2011.
If doctors and hospitals get their paperwork in by the deadline for the first year, they may be eligible to get another incentive payment in the second year as well, he explained.
"That ($3.12 billion) is a significant number," Smith said. "I know more than a year ago when CMS (the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid) scored ... they were thinking between $1 and $4 billion could go out the first year. So I think $3 billion is close to reasonable expectations. That number indicates things are going in the right direction."
Sebelius said 85% of hospitals report that they intend to take advantage of the incentive payments by 2015. The money is funded under the HITECH Act provisions of the 2009 Recovery Act.
Health information technology and healthcare executives anxiously await the release of the proposed rule dictating meaningful use criteria for Stage 2, which is expected on Tuesday.
“Health IT is the foundation for a truly 21st century health system where we pay for the right care, not just more care,” Sebelius said in a media statement. “Health care professionals and hospitals are taking advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to begin using smarter, new technology that improves care and creates the jobs we need for an economy built to last.”
Sebelius made the announcement while touring the Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley Health Science Institute in Kansas City, MO. The institute is symbolic because it is one of many sites gearing up to train more students for health IT careers, as jobs in those specialties increase by an estimated 20% from 2008 to 2018.