Medicare Incentive Payments for Adopting Electronic Health Records

Medicare incentive payments are authorized over a 5-year period to physicians and hospitals that demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology (Recovery Act, §§ 4101 and 4102). Incentive payments were scheduled to begin in 2011 and continue through 2016, with payment reductions to health care professionals who fail to become meaningful users of EHRs beginning in 2015 (§ 4101(b)). As of July 2015, Medicare EHR incentive payments totaled more than $20 billion. We will review Medicare incentive payments to eligible health care professionals and hospitals for adopting EHRs and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services safeguards to prevent erroneous incentive payments. We will review Medicare incentive payment data to identify payments to providers that should not have received incentive payments (e.g., those not meeting selected meaningful-use criteria). We will also assess Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans to oversee incentive payments for the duration of the program and corrective actions taken regarding erroneous incentive payments.

Announced or Revised	Agency	Title	Component	Report Number(s)	Expected Issue Date (FY)
Nov-16	Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services	Medicare Incentive Payments for Adopting Electronic Health Records	Office of Audit Services	W-00-14-31352	2017