GAO Finds That 16 Percent of Eligible Hospitals Received EHR Incentives

More than two-thirds of the hospitals that received Medicare EHR incentive payments for 2011 are in urban areas, according to a new GAO report, which slices and dices who received how much, when, and where. Why? Because the HITECH ACT requires the GAO to report, among other things, the impact of its provisions on adoption of EHRs by providers.

In April 2012 GAO reported on CMS’s efforts to oversee the Medicare EHR program during its first year as well as challenges encountered by providers and strategies they used to participate in the program. At that time, GAO recommended that CMS take steps to enhance its processes to verify that providers met the requirements to receive incentive payments. On behalf of CMS, the Department of Health and Human Services agreed with most of the recommendations, and audits have begun...