D.C. Report: Medicare 'Doc Fix' Program Gets Another Look, Bundled Payment Rules to Be Released Sooner Than Expected

States Missing Proper Data to Verify Medicaid EHR Payments
A new government report released this week found that data availability and a lack of administrative resources could hamper states as they dole out EHR Incentive Payments under Medicaid. Due to such limitations, “States’ ability to proactively ensure the integrity of their EHR incentive payments,” could be affected, said HHS’ Deputy Inspector General for Evaluations and Inspections. According to the OIG’s report (.pdf), 12 out of 13 states surveyed said they are not planning to verify all 11 eligibility requirements before sending payments. However, all 13 states said they plan to audit eligibility requirements after payments are made. In many cases, the report found, states do not have access or do not collect the data needed to conduct a complete verification. “Most States do not plan to start collecting all of the necessary data because the effort would be resource intensive and not logistically practical for most States,” the report said. As of January 14, Kentucky was the only state surveyed that will verify 100 percent of the eligibility requirements.