OIG report hints at EHR meaningful use audits

So far, the government hasn't taken any audit action against providers who have attested to meaningful use and collected their first round of electronic health record (EHR) incentive dollars. But this could be changing, starting with Medicaid incentive payments (worth $21,250 in the first round of the program), according to a new OIG report.

All 13 states examined in the OIG's report, entitled "Early Review of States' Planned Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Program Oersight," say they plan to verify at least some eligibility requirements before doling out incentive dollars. The 13 states studied say they will carry out this verification by comparing providers' self-reported eligibility information "to other data sources."

And this is just the pre-payment verification. All 13 states also plan to audit eligibility requirements after the checks have been sent. Here's the list of the 13 states from the OIG report:

1. Alabama
2. Alaska
3. Iowa
4. Kentucky
5. Michigan
6. Mississippi
7. North Carolina
8. Oklahoma
9. Pennsylvania
10. South Carolina
11. Tennessee
12. Texas
13. Wisconsin

However, the OIG isn't particularly confident that states will be effective in their verification. "We found that data availability limits both the number of requirements that states can verify prior to payment and the completeness of those verifications," the report concludes. "Further, not many states reported plans to start collecting all the necessary data because the effort would be resource-intensive and logistically impractical for most states."