EHR adoption incentives: $700 million and counting

Well, it isn't $700 billion but, then again, it doesn't involve getting down on bended knee before Nancy Pelosi.

CCHIT is taking an ongoing inventory of public and private incentives nationwide intended to promote adoption of CCHIT-certified EHRs.  Thus far, CCHIT has identified 90 public or private initiatives.  These include, for example, state and federal grant programs -- Massachusetts is kicking in $25m under legislation passed in August; the federales are kicking off an EHR Medicare demonstration that could be worth $100m in grants to physician groups -- and private initiatives that run the gamut from hospital funding of physician EHR adoption pursuant to an executive order and related Stark, antikickback and tax regulatory actions, to Bridges to Excellence bonuses to physicians.

The running total is $700m so far, before the $100m Medicare demo.  The total dollar value nationwide is likely significantly higher, as only a fraction of the projects had publicly available dollar figures attached to them.  If anyone out there is aware of an incentive program not on the list, or not fully detailed, I'm sure CCHIT would love to hear from you.

David Harlow
The Harlow Group LLC
Health Care Law and Consulting