Legislators Announce $518,094 to Advance Electronic Health Records at Bay State Mary Lane Hospital

(Boston) – Senator Stephen M. Brewer (D-Barre), Representative Anne M. Gobi (D-Spencer) and Representative Todd M. Smola (R-Palmer) announced today that Bay State Mary Lane Hospital in Ware has received $518,094 to support the adoption of electronic health records, which will contribute to health care cost containment efforts and improve patient care.

In total, more than $14.6 million in federal Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive payments were made to 15 hospitals and 12 eligible health care professionals in Massachusetts.

“This funding is essential for streamlining health care records across the Commonwealth,” said Brewer.  “It is also in stride with the legislature’s commitment to increase efficiency in spending and will enhance accurate record keeping and provide better services for patients.”

“Our community hospitals continue to find ways to provide quality care and patient confidentiality within a difficult fiscal structure.  These grants will greatly assist them in their mission,” stated Gobi.

“This grant assistance will give our health institutions a major advantage when it comes to improving patient care,” said Representative Smola. “The modernization of this process will provide health services more efficiently and effectively.”

Payments were distributed in calendar year 2011 by the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, along with the Massachusetts eHealth Institute (MeHI). The program is a 10-year initiative that offers financial incentives to Medicaid eligible health care professionals, including: physicians, nurse practitioners, certified nurse mid-wives and dentists, as well as short-term acute care hospitals and hospitals for children. The goal is to support the adoption and meaningful use of federally-certified electronic health record technology.

Both the Medicaid incentive program and the Medicare EHR Provider Incentive Payment Program were established through provisions of the federal Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Over the next 10 years, the Commonwealth will distribute approximately $500 million in federal funding to the majority of the state’s 72 acute care hospitals and more than 6,000 eligible health care professionals.

Although each state’s Medicaid agency oversees and administers its own program, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provides reimbursement for 100% of the actual incentives that are issued to health care providers and 90% of the state’s costs of operating the program. In August 2011, CMS approved Massachusetts’ final planning document and announced that Massachusetts would receive more than $12 million in federal reimbursement to support operations and provider outreach activities for the first two years of the Medicaid incentive program.

For more information on the Massachusetts Medicaid EHR Incentive Payment Program, please visit: www.mass.gov/masshealth/ehrincentives.

Posted: Thu, Feb 9, 2012
Updated Thu, Feb 9, 2012