CMS continues to update its web pages, this time adding a substantive section to its site for the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program. The new "Data and Reports" page contains EHR attestation registration data, showing how many eligible providers have signed up to attest to meaningful use, and actual EHR incentive payment data, showing who got paid. There are already two very pretty full-color maps showing distribution data for EHR payments and registration, reflecting data through today (Nov. 7, 2011).

You now have official answers from CMS on some of the trickiest meaningful use questions around, including just how much clinical data you need to record and how to record measures for providers who use electronic health records (EHRs) in multiple locations. The answers, some complete, some barely helpful, are now on CMS’s frequently asked questions (FAQ) page at https://questions.cms.hhs.gov/. Here’s a rundown on the latest ones for meaningful use.

You would be wise to save documentation – in whatever format you can – that shows you were honest and accurate in attesting to meaningful use for the Medicare electronic health record (EHR) incentive program, which is currently doling out money pretty much on the honor system, CMS says. Now the agency has issued its strongest statement yet on the need to preserve documentation for the future meaningful use auditing program.

Don't start panicking yet, but it turns out that the electronic health record (EHR) incentive money everyone's been talking about could go right out the door. That's right, the up to $44,000 in per-provider subsidies could be eliminated by the Congressional "supercommittee," a bipartisan group of 12 lawmakers formed by the Budget Control Act of 2011 -- aka the debt ceiling law - passed Aug. 2 after much political wrangling. Whether the supercommittee comes up with a bill or not, this means your EHR incentive money could be reduced or even eliminated as a result of deficit cutting.

When you attest to having met meaningful use with your EHR, a CMS computer system does a fast, cursory check and then sets the gears in motion to deliver your bonus check, agency officials said during an Aug. 18 open door call. A CMS computer system “almost instantly” calculates attestation results entered on the EHR Incentive Program Registration and Attestation System website, said Travis Broome, an agency official. What’s more, right now there is no real fact-checking going on; as long as the attestation data meets the thresholds, the attestation is successful, he said.