Take advantage of federal incentive payments for adoption and use of electronic health records (EHR). EHR availability leads to improvement in quality of care and patient outcomes. Incentive payments begin in 2011. Get started today.

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act established Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs to support the transition to a nationwide system of EHRs. Through the HITECH Act, the federal government will make incentive payments available totaling up to $27 billion over 10 years, or as much as $44,000 (through Medicare) or $63,750 (through Medicaid) per provider. 

Medicare providers, Medicaid providers, and hospitals are eligible for these incentive programs. If you are eligible for both the Medicare and the Medicaid incentive programs, you can only participate in one program. However, you may switch between the programs one time after the first incentive payment is initiated before 2015.

To qualify for incentive payments, you must achieve “meaningful use” objectives, which demonstrate how you use EHRs:

• In a meaningful manner (e.g., e-Prescribing)
• To electronically exchange health information to improve health care quality
• To submit clinical quality and other measures  

• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
  Official Web site for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs
• Massachusetts eHealth Institute
  The state's entity for health care innovation, technology, and competitiveness
• Massachusetts Health Data Consortium
  A nonprofit organization that creates, promotes, and supports collaborative efforts to improve health and health care using health data and health information technology