2014 MU Incentive Program Off To A Relatively Slow Start

As of the end of February, there were 458,137 total participants – up from 448,750 in January – from all versions of the EHR incentive program, according to Elizabeth Myers, head of policy and outreach at the Office of eHealth Standards and Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services at the Tuesday HIT Policy Committee meeting. Since February, 9387 eligible providers have joined the meaningful use incentive program. That total includes 5,716 Medicare providers, 3,662 Medicaid providers and 9 hospitals, she said.

This may sound impressive, until it is compared with prior years. CMS has only begun to sort through the 2013 reporting year, which ended March 31, Myers said. Still, raw data provided by Myers caused some members of the committee to sit up and take notice. Data available for Medicaid providers (who have an earlier attestation deadline than Medicare providers) painted a disturbing picture. Some 31,573 total unique Medicaid eligible providers were paid under the 2012 reporting year compared to 19 Medicaid EPs paid so far in 2014. Obviously, that represents only the first month of the 2014 reporting year...