Nearly 5 percent of eligible hospitals failed their post-payment meaningful use audits, resulting in the those hospitals being required to return their EHR incentive payments, according to data from the HHS published in a recent Health Security Solutions infographic. About 94 percent of the 651 post-payment meaningful use audits have been completed between January 2011 and August 2014.
Any provider who receives an incentive payment for either the Medicare or Medicaid EHR Incentive Program may be subject to an audit, performed both pre- and post-payment by the CMS through its contractor, Figliozzi and Company. These audits may result in a provider returning incentive payments if they reveal the provider or hospital has failed to meet meaningful use standards or if it isn't eligible for an incentive payment after all. Furthermore, if it is determined that a provider has attested fraudulently, imprisonment, significant fines or both are possible consequences.
The HHS findings are shown below:
- The proposed amount of returned incentive payment ranged from $280,414 to nearly $3.5 million
- The average proposed returned incentive payment was about $1.1 million per hospital
- The overall proposed returned incentives total nearly $33 million