Idaho Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Program
The Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program was put in place to provide incentive payments to eligible professionals (EPs) and eligible hospitals (EHs) as they adopt, implement, and upgrade (AIU) a certified EHR technology system or for demonstrating meaningful use (MU) of such a system. These payments are part of an effort to accelerate the adoption of Health Information Technology (HIT) and utilization of qualified EHRs.
EPs and EHs must attest to either AIU or MU and be able to provide documentation to support the requirements. EPs and EHs must begin attestations by 2016 to receive EHR incentive payments as the last incentive payment year is 2021. EPs may receive up to $63,750 over six years of Medicaid payments. Payments for EHs are calculated based on their most recently settled Medicare cost report, and the payment is split over three years. As of April 2016, 1,480 Idaho Medicaid EPs and EHs have been paid more than $45 million dollars combined.
On January 04, 2016, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented a modification rule for program year 2015. This rule reduces the complexity of the EHR Incentive Program and addresses the many challenges which prevented providers from meeting MU requirements. Due to this rule, Idaho Medicaid has implemented new changes to the attestation system known as Idaho Incentive Management System (IIMS). These CMS-approved changes are scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, April 13, 2016. The modification rule and attestation system changes have caused a delay in accepting 2015 and 2016 MU attestations. Due to this delay, we have extended our 2015 EP attestation deadline to May 31st, 2016. For EH attestations, the 2015 extension expired December 31, 2015.
Additional information about the Idaho Medicaid EHR Incentive Program can be found by visiting http://healthandwelfare.idaho.gov/Providers/ElectronicHealthRecords. Idaho’s EHR staff can be contacted at (208) 332-7989 or at ehrincentives@dhw.idaho.gov.
| Calendar Year | Date | Important Information |
| 2016 | May 31 | Last day to enroll for Program Year 2015 attestations. |
| 2017 | March 31 | Last day to enroll for Program Year 2016 attestations. If an EP and/or EH is not enrolled in an incentive program by the end of Program Year 2016, they will not be allowed to participate for the rest of the program. |
| 2022 | March 31 | Last day to enroll for Program Year 2021 attestations. Program Year 2021 is the last year of payments to EPs and/or EHs. |
