Three U.S. senators have introduced legislation that aims to encourage safety-net providers to adopt electronic health record technology by expanding eligibility for meaningful use incentive payments.
Many hospitals and other providers who serve a high proportion of low-income patients have been unable to meet the 30 percent Medicaid patient threshold required to be eligible for incentive payments under the existing program, according to a news release from Sen. Jay Rockefeller's office.
Sens. Rockefeller, Sheldon Whitehouse and Al Franken's legislation, the Medicaid Information Technology to Enhance Community Health Act, would expand eligibility for incentive payments to providers where 30 percent of the patients are low-income.
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