About 45,000 office-based physicians, including nearly all physicians who practice at federally qualified health centers and half of office-based pediatricians, may be eligible for up to $63,750 over six years to improve and maintain their health information technology systems because of their participation in Medicaid, according to a new analysis by researchers at The George Washington University.
The report, Boosting Health Information Technology in Medicaid: The Potential Effect of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, examines the Medicaid HIT adoption incentives contained in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. The funds are intended to help physicians establish, upgrade and operate electronic health record systems. The study is described as the first to map the potential impact of the Medicaid provisions on physicians’ access to incentive funding.
