News: EHRs costs CMS over $729 million in improper incentives

CMS may have paid $729 million in electronic health record (EHR) incentive payments that didn’t comply with the federal standards between May 2011 and June 2014, according to the Office of Inspector General (OIG), Modern Healthcare reported.

The EHR incentive program seeks to encourage healthcare facilities to use certified EHR technology by offering incentive payments—an opportunity that approximately 500,000 facilities and providers have taken advantage of. Between these participants, CMS has paid $6 billion in EHR incentive payments.

The HHS OIG report, however, reported that CMS may have drastically overpaid to facilities whose systems didn’t comply with the federal standards. Specifically, the HHS OIG found that the organizations were unable to provide documentation that met the Meaningful Use requirements.

The report recommends that CMS conduct a review to determine the accuracy of the payments and identify any improperly distributed funds for recoupment. It also recommended education as to proper documentation requirements to obtain incentive payments.

In response, CMS said that they already implemented targeted risk-based audits to ensure appropriate payments under the EHR Incentive Program.

Editor’s note: To read the entire report from the HHS OIG, click here. To read the coverage of this story from Modern Healthcare, click here.