Electronic health record incentive payments to eligible docs and hospitals continue to climb into the new year. The "inexorable progress" of the federal EHR incentive program continues, with payments to providers moving ever closer to $20 billion.

 

As of the end of November, more than 436,000 hospitals and health professionals have registered for the Medicaid and Medicare EHR incentive program, and the federal government has made more than $17.7 billion in payments, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told the Health IT Policy Committee in an update.

 

[See also: Whopping $17B paid out so far for MU.]

 

Of the $17.7 billion, almost $11 billion has gone to 4,300-plus hospitals who have achieved meaningful use status, while $4 billion has gone to about 210,000 physicians and health professionals qualifying under Medicare and $2.5 billion has gone to 107,000 professionals qualifying under Medicaid.

 

All of that has translated in a majority of American providers now using digital health record systems, the data showing the "inexorable progress made every month," as policy committee chair Paul Tang, MD, the chief innovation and technology officer at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, said on Tuesday during the HIT Policy meeting.

 

CMS eHealth specialist Robert Anthony also highlighted some other data showing attestation rates for core objectives, with high percentages in many areas but lags for others, such as syndromic surveillance.