HHS has received applications from more than 30 communities for a new demonstration project in which participating physicians will receive Medicare incentive payments for using certified electronic health records, Health Data Management reports.
Early next month, HHS plans to select 12 communities to participate in the demonstration project. CMS then will work with the communities to recruit up to 1,200 small- and medium-sized primary care physician practices to participate.
Recruitment for four of the selected communities will begin in fall 2008, while the remaining eight communities will launch recruitment efforts in 2009.
Under the demonstration project, participating physician practices will receive financial incentives for using EHRs to improve care quality as measured by their performance on certain clinical quality measures. In addition, physician practices will be eligible for bonus payments based on a survey of a number of EHR functionalities incorporated by the practices (Health Data Management, 5/19).
Total payments under the five-year demonstration project could be up to $58,000 per physician or up to $290,000 per practice (HHS press release, 5/19).