CMS EHR Incentive Payments Flirt With $7 Billion

Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record payments are approaching $7 billion since its inception, with $6.9 billion paid out to 143,800 physicians and hospitals in total program estimates through the end of August.

Final figures will be available later this month as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid captures more complete data.

In August, the agency paid about $500 million in incentives, with about $325 million going to Medicare providers and $175 million to Medicaid providers, “which will bring us knocking on the door of $7 billion in incentive payments issued as of the end of last month,” said Robert Anthony, a specialist in CMS’ Office of eHealth Standards and Services.