On Wedneday, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt announced the twelve communities that have been selected to participate in the first national Medicare demonstration project related to incentive payments for Electronic Health Records (EHR).

The communities will work with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in two phases. 

Phase I (beginning in 2008)

Louisiana; Maryland/Washington, D.C.; Pittsburgh, PA (and surrounding counties); and South Dakota (and surrounding counties in Iowa, Minnesota, and North Dakota).

Phase II (beginning in 2009)

Alabama; Delaware; Jacksonville, FL (and surrounding counties); Georgia; Maine; Oklahoma; Virginia; and Madison, WI (and surrounding counties).

The physician practices involved must meet specified standards:

As part of this new demonstration, all participating physician practices will be required to have a Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT)-certified EHR by the end of the second year. (CCHIT is the recognized certification authority for EHRs and their networks.) Physician practices must, as part of the demonstration, be utilizing the EHR to perform specific minimum core functionalities that can positively impact patient care processes, e.g., clinical documentation, ordering of lab tests, recording lab tests, and ordering prescriptions. However, the core incentive payment will be based on performance on the quality measures, with an enhanced bonus based on the degree of HIT functionality used to manage care.

Read more information in the full press release from Health and Human Services (HHS) and get more details on requirements and payment determinations in a pdf for the project.  See year-by-year payment amounts and background information on EHRs here.

Source: HHS.