CMS’ Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program turned one year old earlier this month, and CMS celebrated the milestone by showing off a few statistics on the success of the program as well as introducing some tools for eligible providers.

Among the stats:

• Forty-three states started Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.

Make sure you’re not missing out on a 10% bonus payment this year if you live in a health professional shortage area (HPSA). Check out CMS’ updated list of ZIP codes that qualify as geographic HPSAs in 2012.

Prompt payment discounts are an intriguing option to offer patients to get them to pay up, especially in the midst of high-deductible season. But are they legal?

 Many states have laws about how you can bill people for medical services. It's a fertile area for legal analysis. And of course it gets more complicated when Medicare gets involved.

OIG has suggested in the past that routine waivers of co-payments are a form of fraud. On the same principle, might not a reduced bill for prompt payment also be illegal.

You can expect to get paid on time despite the hold CMS has on your claims through Jan. 17. Your 2012 claims are still subject to the 14-day payment floor, the length of time from when CMS receives electronic claims and must keep them, for error-free claims, a CMS official says.

You now have an extra six weeks to complete your applications to participate in a Bundled Payments for Care Improvement project. CMS announced the deadline for Models 2 through 4 has been extended from March 15, 2012 to April 30, 2012.

Remember:  Bundled payments models 2 and 3 pertain to post-discharge care, and are the only two models that allow individual physician practices to participate. Models 1 and 4 are for inpatient stays only.