The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provides over $60B to stimulate healthcare IT (HIT) adoption by the medical community over the next few years. Of the total money available, approximately $46B is dedicated to pay-for-performance and $14B to grants.

Meaningful Use of Certified EHR Technology:

To take advantage of these financial incentives you must be able to demonstrate “Meaningful Use” of Healthcare IT. The EHR must be ONC certified by either Drummond Group, CCHIT, InfoGard Laboratories, ICSA Labs or SLI Global Solutions and you need to utilize the EHR for reporting on specified clinical quality measures and other objectives.

Open registration for the incentive program commenced in January of 2011. To begin receiving payments in 2011, healthcare providers participating in the Medicare program must verify that they have demonstrated meaningful use of certified electronic health records for 90 days. To fit in 90 days of meaningful use means that no healthcare provider will be able to attest before April of 2011, with the first payments expected to go out in the middle of May. For healthcare providers participating in the Medicaid program, they must merely verify that they have purchased a certified electronic health records system. For important information on Meaningful Use, download or view the below documents:
Stimulus 101
Meaningful Use Objectives
Meaningful Use Practice Wall Poster
Clinical Quality Measures
FAQ's
  • Incentives are scheduled to begin in 2011
  • Available to all non-hospital physicians who see Medicare patients
  • Eligible physicians can receive up to $44K over a five-year period
  • Minimum for Medicare participation: Providers must bill 125% of the total incentive received over the five-year period of incentive distribution
  • Must prove "meaningful use" of an EHR

Physicians who have not adopted an EHR by January 1, 2015 will be penalized by reduced Medicare payments.
CMS has extended full Medicare ePrescribing one full year until the end of 2011.

Medicaid eligible professionals may not be hospital-based and must meet one of the following criteria: Have a minimum 30 percent patient volume (20% for pediatrics) attributable to individuals receiving Medicaid; Practice predominately in a Federally Qualified Health Center or Rural Health Clinic and have a minimum 30 percent patient volume attributable to needy individuals.

A Medicaid eligible professional must adopt, implement, upgrade or demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology in the first year of participation to qualify for Medicaid incentive payments. Eligible professionals must then demonstrate meaningful use in years 2-6 of participation. For calendar years 2011-2021, the maximum amount of total incentive payments that can be received is $63,750 over 6 years. The annual incentive payment limits in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth years are $21,250, $8,500, $8,500, $8,500, $8,500 and $8,500 respectively. No penalties have been defined by Medicaid for lack of adoption.

This is a great opportunity for your practice and we are here to assist you with understanding what this bill means and how you can benefit from it.

It is important to realize that reimbursements are now available. It is critical that you learn about your EHR options, select the right system, implement it, and most importantly, use it effectively. Waiting on these decisions will merely prolong or lessen your reimbursements.

We understand that this is a lot of information to process and can assist you with step-by-step instructions on how to apply and qualify for the stimulus funds. We offer the following ways you can continue to learn about the stimulus bill and what you need to do next: