Medicaid EHR Incentive Payments to Start in Some States in Early 2011 - December 21, 2010

On Dec.14, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Technical Director for Health Information Technology Jessica Kahn announced that nine states will be prepared to initiate Medicaid electronic health record (EHR) incentive programs in January and early February, with two more following in late February or early March. According to Kahn, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana and Oklahoma likely will begin issuing checks to EHR providers by the end of January. In addition to these four states, the Medicaid programs in the following states will be authorized to pay incentives to eligible meaningful users of EHR by April 2011: Mississippi, Alaska, North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan, Tennessee and Texas. The EHR incentive program was authorized under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act and provides incentive payments to those health care providers who achieve meaningful use of health information technology.