The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) have announced that registration for eligible providers seeking to participate in the Medicare electronic health record (EHR) financial incentive program will begin on January 3, 2011. In order to be eligible to receive money from the EHR financial incentive program, eligible providers must first register.

Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments are available under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act for eligible providers. Those who do not become meaningful HER users by 2015 will suffer a reduction in their reimbursement levels from Medicare.

Obtaining a national provider identifier is critical for all eligible providers who wish to register in the program. Because this may take some effort to obtain, providers are encouraged to begin the process as soon as possible. CMS and ONC are identifying on the CMS website resources that are available to assist providers who are eligible for the program. For example, there are more than 130 certified EHR systems included on ONC's HIT Product List. ONC also has "hands-on" assistance available throughout the country.

CMS has announced the following important dates for participating providers:

• January 3, 2011: Registration begins for the Medicare EHR incentive program.
• April 2011: Attestation begins for the Medicare EHR Incentive (Note: By this time, eligible providers must employ certified EHR technology and demonstrate meaningful use of the technology).
• May 2011: First Medicare EHR incentive payments expected.
• July 3, 2011: Deadline for eligible hospitals to start the 90-day reporting period to demonstrate meaningful use for the Medicare program in fiscal year 2011.
• October 3, 2011: Deadline for eligible professionals under the Medicare incentive program to begin their 90-day reporting period for calendar year 2011.
• November 30, 2011: Deadline for hospitals to register and attest to receive a 2011 fiscal year payment under the Medicare incentive program.
• December 31, 2011: Payment ends for eligible professionals for the 2011 calendar year.

Keep in mind that physicians are only eligible for one EHR incentive program at a time (i.e., either Medicare or Medicaid), but each physician in a group can register for one or the other, and they may change once during the incentive program.

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For more information about the Medicare EHR financial incentive program, please contact your attorney contact at our firm.

Abrams, Fensterman, Fensterman, Eisman,
Formato, Ferrara & Einiger, LLP