The economic stimulus package passed for the year 2009 includes an EMR Stimulus incentive bill that is designed to foster the implementation by health care providers of Meaningful Use EMR.
The EMR stimulus has been adopted to encourage clinic and office based physicians to accelerate the transition towards an EMR System to help the US healthcare system more quickly meet its goals.
Those healthcare providers that move forward with EMR implementation and meet certain EMR requirements are eligible for significant EMR incentive reimbursements (government EMR grants) over a period of years.
EMR Economic Stimulus Package Qualifications
Federal grants for EMR have been set aside totaling $19 billion as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for EMR adoption incentives.
EMR stimulus payments are made available under either the Medicare incentives for EMR or the Medicaid incentive program.
Physician offices and medical providers will benefit greatly from electronic medical records and the federal grants for EMR associated with their implementation. This EMR grant money is available to eligible medical providers based on specific qualifications.
EMR Medicare Reimbursement
Starting in 2011, under Medicare, a maximum of $44,000 is available to medical providers over a period of five years.
The actual total payment available is the smaller amount of either 75% of Medicare Part B claims or $44,000. The largest EMR stimulus incentive payment is provided in the first year, with subsequent decreasing payments going out to year five.
The payments under the qualifying Medicare provision are as follows:
- Year 1 – $18,000
- Year 2 – $12,000
- Year 3 – $8,000
- Year 4 – $4,000
- Year 5 – $2,000
EMR Medicaid Reimbursement
Under the Medicaid provision, beginning in 2011, a maximum of $63,500 is made available over a period of six years under the stimulus package EMR incentive.
The total payment available to medical providers is the lesser of 85% of their EMR cost, with a maximum of $25,000 in the first year and 85% of yearly costs, with a maximum of $10,000 over the remaining five years.
Special qualifying provisions for the payment of stimulus money for EMR under the Medicaid incentive are as follows;
- A minimum of 30% of cases must be under Medicaid to qualify
- This EMR Medicaid requirement is reduced to 20% for pediatricians
CHC EMR Grant Provisions
Community health centers (CHC’s) care for millions of people in need and many CHC’s suffer from a lack of capital to invest in improvements in their information technology structures.
Under the economic stimulus package EMR provisions, authority has been given to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to distribute EMR incentive funds to Community Health Centers for the purpose of assisting them in implementing, upgrading and expanding their EMR systems.
Qualified and Certified EMR Software Solution
MicroMD offers certified Electronic Medical Records software specifically designed for improving workflow efficiency, converting medical offices to a paperless environment and to meeting Meaningful Use requirements for EMR incentive eligibility.
Under the Henry Schein name, MicroMD EMR incorporates powerful benefits that will enable you to increase the productivity and service capacity of your office based practice.
For more information about how the EMR Stimulus incentive can benefit your practice please
call us Toll Free at 1-800-624-8832 or contact our EMR Sales department.
