Hospitals Enroll in PECOS to Receive Medicare EHR Incentives - June 15, 2010

On June 11, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced via email that hospitals wishing to receive incentive payments for achieving meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act must also be enrolled in the Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS). CMS explained that PECOS will be used to verify Medicare enrollment, which is a requirement for receiving Medicare EHR incentive payments. Hospitals that enrolled in Medicare prior to November 2003 and have not updated since then are not in PECOS. Hospitals that are unsure of their status are strongly encouraged to check online. CMS has provided further information on how to establish a PECOS enrollment.