EHR Incentive Payments Climb Toward $24 Billion

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have paid out $23.7 billion in electronic health record incentives under the meaningful use program through last month — up from $22.9 billion in April, according to Elisabeth Myers, policy and outreach lead at the CMS Office of eHealth Standards and Services at the June 10 monthly Health IT Policy committee meeting.

The announcement comes as federal officials have proposed a reboot to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, taking into consideration the downsizing of ONC’s funding following the close-out of incentive payments.

During discussions at the HIT Policy Committee meeting, differences of opinion continue to remain among EHR vendors, providers and policymakers as the difficulty in the meaningful use program has reached a head for Stage 2 and alternatives are under consideration to provide relief....