HHS Secretary Announces 12 Communities Selected To Advance Use Of Electronic Health Records In First Ever National Demonstration

As many as 1200 primary care physicians will participate in the pilot program. There are 2 phases to the project and recruitment of practices will begin in the fall. So far, there’s no mention of the software to be used, and it appears to be left up to the participants selecting a certified software program. In a related story, Maine has made an announcement as far as being one of the selected participants. Incentives are also on the way to be paid over a 5 year time frame. BD

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt named 12 communities that will participate in a national Medicare demonstration project that provides incentive payments to physicians for using certified electronic health records (EHR) to improve the quality of patient care. The five-year, first-of-its-kind project is expected to improve the quality of care provided to an estimated 3.6 million Americans.

The communities selected to work with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on the EHR demonstration project range from county- and state- level to multi-state collaborations. They include:
- Alabama
- Delaware
- Jacksonville, FL (multi-county)
- Georgia
- Maine
- Louisiana
- Maryland/Washington, DC
- Oklahoma
- Pittsburgh, PA (multi-county)
- South Dakota (multi-state)
- Virginia
- Madison, WI (multi-county)