The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced that Medicaid programs in seven states will receive federal matching funds for state planning activities necessary to implement the electronic health record incentive program established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). 

Iowa was the first state to receive the matching funds; California, Georgia, Idaho, Montana, New York, Texas and the U.S. Virgin Islands are the next seven states and territories to receive the funds.

ARRA provides a 90 percent federal match for state planning activities to administer the incentive payments to Medicaid providers, to ensure their proper payments through audits and to participate in statewide efforts to promote interoperability and meaningful use of EHR technology statewide and, eventually, across the nation.

The states will use the money for planning activities that include conducting a comprehensive analysis to determine the current status of health IT activities within its borders.

As part of that process, each state will gather information on issues such as existing barriers to its use of EHRs, provider eligibility for EHR incentive payments and the creation of a State Medicaid HIT Plan (SMHP), which will define a vision for long-term health IT use, according to CMS.

Federal matching funds for the states were awarded as follows:

• California will receive approximately $2.48 million
• Georgia will receive approximately $3.17 million
• Idaho will receive approximately $142,000
• Montana will receive approximately $239,000
• New York will receive approximately $5.91 million
• Texas will receive approximately $3.86 million
• The U.S.Virgin Islands will receive approximately $232,000

“We congratulate (the states) for qualifying for these federal matching funds to assist its plan for implementing the Recovery Act’s EHR incentive program,” said Cindy Mann, director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations at CMS. “Meaningful and interoperable use of EHRs in Medicaid will increase healthcare efficiency, reduce medical errors and improve quality-outcomes and patient satisfaction within and across the states.”