The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has announced that Medicaid programs in six more states will receive federal matching funds for planning activities necessary to implement the electronic health record incentive program established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, Mississippi, Colorado and North Carolina will receive funding.
ARRA provides a 90 percent federal match for state planning activities to administer the incentive payments to Medicaid providers to ensure proper payments through audits and participate in statewide – and eventually national – efforts to promote interoperability and meaningful use of EHR technology.
“We congratulate (the states) for qualifying for the federal matching funds to assist its plan for implementing the Recovery Act’s EHR incentive program,” said Cindy Mann, director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations at CMS. “Meaningful and interoperable use of EHRs in Medicaid will increase healthcare efficiency, reduce medical errors and improve quality-outcomes and patient satisfaction within and across the states.”
Awards given:
- Utah will receive $396,000
- Wyoming will receive $596,000
- Nevada will receive $1.05 million
- Mississippi will receive $1.47 million
- Colorado will receive $798,000
- North Carolina will receive $2.29 million
State planning activities include an analysis of the status of health IT activities in the state. As part of that process, the states will gather information on issues such as existing barriers to the use of EHRs, provider eligibility for EHR incentive payments and the creation of a long-term State Medicaid Health IT Plan.