A July 18 article in Bloomberg BNA's Health Care Daily
Report and other publications, "Health-Care Watchdog to
Review Medicaid Opioid Claims," discussed plans by the Office
of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human
Services to review electronic health record (EHR) incentive
payments made to hospitals. A June report by the OIG,
discussed
here, estimated that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS) overpaid eligible professionals $729 million in EHR
incentives between 2011 and 2014.
In the Bloomberg BNA article, Day Pitney healthcare
attorney Eric Fader observed that the overpayment illustrates the
difficulty CMS has had in administering the EHR program.
"I'm sure the OIG expects that out of the $14.6 billion in
incentives paid to hospitals from 2011 through 2016, it will
uncover another massive overpayment amount," Eric said.
It's not clear how many of the overpayments under the EHR
program were due to sloppiness in submissions and how many were the
product of intentional wrongdoing, Eric said, adding that a
thorough OIG audit of EHR incentive payments to hospitals is
overdue.
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