Incentives Offered For Use of Electronic Health Records

Twelve sites across the United States will participate in a Medicare demonstration project that will offer incentives to doctors who switch to electronic health records (EHRs), Health and Human Service Secretary Mike Leavitt announced Tuesday.

Once the five-year, $150-million project is fully implemented, as many as 1,200 small- and medium-sized primary care practices will receive incentive payments in exchange for getting rid of paper records and adopting certified EHRs. The goal is to reduce errors and improve health outcomes for patients.

Total payments under the demonstration for all five years may be up to $58,000 per physician or up to $290,000 per practice.

Communities selected to work with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on the EHR demonstration project include: Alabama; Delaware; Jacksonville, Fla. (multi-county); Georgia; Maine; Louisiana; Maryland/Washington, DC; Oklahoma; Pittsburgh, Pa. (multi-county); South Dakota; Virginia; Madison, Wis. (multi-county).