As you know, the Medicare EHR Incentive Program will provide incentive payments to eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and CAHs that demonstrate "meaningful use" of certified EHR technology.  Registration for the program began on January 3, 2011. 

On August 5, 2010, four major insurers announced meaningful use incentives.  Aetna, Highmark, UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint, at minimum, will align their pay-for-performance programs with federal meaningful use criteria.  In a joint statement, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology David Blumenthal, M.D., and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Principal Deputy Administrator Marilyn Tavenner, stated:

The Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program is only available to “eligible” professionals and hospitals. The final rule will soon be published and CMS is planning to use the Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS) to verify Medicare enrollment. While this may seem like a no-brainer, you may or may not have an enrollment record in PECOS. Use the checklist below to avoid a last minute scramble that could impact your incentive payment.

On March 8, 2010, the American Hospital Association (AHA) submitted comments to CMS on its proposed "meaningful use" rule.

The July issue of Management Science contains a study that "quantifies the effect of state privacy regulation on the diffusion of electronic medical records." The study, by Amalia Miller, Department of Economics, University of Virginia and Catherine Tucker, MIT Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found that "state privacy regulation restricting hospital release of health information reduces aggregate EMR adoption by hospitals by more than 24%."  To see the abstract, click

I'm all for saving money and making things easier, at least when it doesn't publicize my Dr's finding from my latest physical.

M. Eric Johnson who is the director of the Center for Digital Strategies at Dartmouth College discovered a number of medical records available for public view during a two week study he completed in January for the Department of Homeland Security. Amazingly these files were available for the taking on peer-to-peer file sharing networks you and I would visit to download our favorite song.

Both the Senate and House have passed different versions of an economic stimulus bill. In addition to tax cuts and new government spending provisions, both bills include many provisions that affect healthcare providers. A conference committee will meet this week in an attempt to iron out the differences.

According to a fact sheet from the Senate Finance Committee, here are some of the key differences in the two bills, relating to healthcare.