Nationwide Medicare Electronic Health Record Incentive Payments to Hospitals

Medicare incentive payments were authorized over a 5-year period to hospitals that adopted electronic health record (EHR) technology (Recovery Act, 4102). From January 1, 2011, through December 31, 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) made Medicare EHR incentive payments to hospitals totaling $14.6 billion. The Government Accountability Office identified improper incentive payments as the primary risk to the Medicare EHR incentive program. A Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (OIG), report describes the obstacles that CMS faces in overseeing the Medicare EHR incentive program. In addition, previous OIG reviews of Medicaid EHR incentive payments found that State agencies overpaid hospitals by $66.7 million and would in the future overpay these hospitals an additional $13.2 million. These overpayments resulted from inaccuracies in the hospitals' calculations of total incentive payments. We will review the hospitals' incentive payment calculations to identify potential overpayments that the hospitals would have received as a result of the inaccuracies.

Announced or Revised	Agency	Title	Component	Report Number(s)	Expected Issue Date (FY)
Completed	Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services	Nationwide Medicare Electronic Health Record Incentive Payments to Hospitals	Office of Audit Services	W-00-20-35795	2023