A lot of questions are circulating as to what will make a DC eligible to receive EHR incentive payments.  The following information comes directly from the Medicare & Medicaid EHR Incentive Program power point presentation dated August 10, 2010 (beginning on slide 40) and provides answers to many FAQs.

To participate a chiropractor must:

• Register via the EHR Incentive Program website  (the website is up, but the registration area is not yet open for business)
• Be enrolled in either the Medicare FFS or Medicaid FFS (fee-for-service) 
• Have a National Provider Identifier (NPI)
• Use Certified EHR technology (it is my understanding software vendors will be assigned a Unique Identifier Number once they’ve been certified, and you will enter this # during registration to meet this requirement)

Registration requirements include:

• Name of the eligible professional
• National Provider Indentifier (NPI)
• Business address and business phone
• Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) to which the provider would like their incentive payment made
• Medicare or Medicaid program selection (you may switch between programs before 2015, but only once)

Timeline of the program:

• Fall 2010 – Certified EHR technology will be available and listed on the website (ACOM Health fully anticipates our Rapid software will be certified by year’s end)
• January 2011 – Registration for the EHR Incentive Programs begin
• April 2011 – Attestation for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program begins
• May 2011 – Medicare EHR incentive payments begin (Medicare will automatically cut the check once a provider hits the $18,000 max, otherwise you’ll have to wait until the year has ended)
• February 29, 2012 – Last day for EPs to register and attest to receive an incentive payment for CY 2011

If you treat more Medicaid patients than Medicare, I encourage you to go through the power point presentation to get a better understanding of the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program and how it differs from the Medicare program.