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empower Hospital+Office, the Hospital-Wide solution with integrated Physician Offices software allows clinical providers to collect money from the Obama IT Healthcare Stimulus plan (approximately) $3 Million Dollars per hospitaland $44,000 per physician.


Contact empowersystems now to learn more about how crucial it is for your EHR initiatives to have the right partner.


The following information provides an in-depth overview of how the Recovery & Reinvestment act will directly impact the healthcare industry today, tomorrow, and for the foreseeable future. If you would like to review this in more detail, please select the link below for the full report.

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President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law Feb 17 in Denver, CO


  • $787 billion in new spending and tax cuts
  • Billions for health information technology (HIT) 
  • Two main incentive opportunities: Medicare and Medicaid
  • Many provisions of the incentive programs and the privacy and security provisions remain to be further defined, modified and finalized through the federal regulatory process.

Incentives for Hospitals

  • $2 million base amount additional funding based on a complex formula
  • $2 million base amount, additional funding based on a complex formula
  • Certain acute-care and children’s hospitals are eligible for Medicaid incentives
  • Incentives vary by hospital based on total discharges, Medicare population (Parts A and C) and level of charity care
  • Payments made over four years
  • No incentive payments for hospitals first adopting after 2015
  • Practice/hospital relationship one of the more difficult areas of law –specifics on if and how hospitals can assist practices still to be determined

Penalties for Hospitals

  • Starting in 2015, eligible hospitals that are not meaningful EHR users will face a market basket reduction under Medicare
  • HHS secretary, on a case-by-case basis, may exempt an eligible hospital from application of payment penalty if requirement would result in significant hardship (Example: rural area without sufficient Internet access)
  • Exemption cannot exceed five years

State Flexibility: Incentive Payments to Providers

  • For hospitals eligible for Medicaid incentive payments, payments will be determined by the same calculation as the Medicare will be determined by the same calculation as the Medicare payment algorithm
    • The first four payment years will be weighted for, rather than follow the descending weights in use for Medicare incentive payments, and will use Medicaid patient load instead of Medicare patient load

Medicaid Timing and Process

  • First year payment (85% of up to $25,000) for EHR purchase
  • Subsequent payments (85% of up to $10000/yr for 5 years) for
  • States will determine the process for practices to get these incentive payments
  • Medicaid incentive payments will not be available until 2011
Copyright 2009. Medical Group Management Association. All rights reserved.

HIMSS Newsletter ARRA Summary

Incentives for healthcare providers

In ARRA, the U.S. Congress has provided the health care industry with more than $17 billion in incentives to acquire and implement EHR technology and the associated infrastructure. The HITECH Act portion of the stimulus includes major incentives for, among others:
  • Hospital systems
  • Individual physician practices
  • Universities and institutions of higher learning
  • Health Information Exchanges (HIEs are eligible for $300 million in funding under ARRA)
  • States and certain state-designated entities.

Initial Amount

($2 million plus additional amounts calculated in accordance with each hospital’s Medicare discharges)
X

Medicare Share

(roughly, a hospital’s share of Medicare discharges over total discharges)
X

Transition Factor:

Year 1 – 100%
Year 2 – 75%
Year 3 – 50%
Year 4 – 25%
Year 5 – 0%

Hospitals can receive both Medicare and Medicaid incentives (calculations for the latter are linked to Medicaid discharges). The Medicaid portion can be accelerated (50% in one year or 90% in two years). Also, Medicaid incentives are not restricted to subsection (d) hospitals. Thus, for example, although a children’s hospital does not qualify for Medicare incentive payments, its Medicaid incentives may produce a much higher amount of reimbursements.

© 2008 EmpowER Systems®