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Medicaid EHR Incentive Registration for Alabama Providers To Begin April, 2011

According to a notification from Medicaid, Medicaid EHR incentive registration for Alabama providers will begin in April, 2011. Below is a notification dated 1/12/11 from Alabama Medicaid:

State providers need to prepare for EHR incentive payment registration

While national registration for federal electronic health record incentive payments has begun on the national level, Alabama providers will need to wait until April 1, 2011, to register for the program, popularly known as “meaningful use.” Alabama had originally hoped to participate in first-round testing with the federal National Level Repository; however, Alabama is now in line to test for state registration to begin in April.

State registration is the final step for Medicaid providers who hope to receive up to $63,750 over a five year period for implementing and using electronic health records and related technologies in a prescribed manner.

To receive the payments, providers must begin the registration process at the national level, and then complete state-level registration and attestation. State level registration, however, cannot be completed until the Alabama’s registration system is operational in April, according to Kim Davis-Allen, state health information technology coordinator.

During this interim period, Alabama providers are encouraged to prepare now to register by ensuring that they have all of the required numbers that will be needed to register. Davis-Allen noted that eligible providers will need an active National Provider Identifier (NPI), and have a National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) web user account. The CMS website contains comprehensive information of the information needed for the national registration process.

Other preliminary steps providers may want to consider include contacting the University of South Alabama, the state’s Regional Extension Center, for assistance in assessing the electronic health records needs of the practice, help in selecting a certified vendor and training and educational opportunities.

Updates, announcements and additional information is available at www.onehealthrecord.alabama.gov

Links: Regional Extension Center: http://www.al-rec.org/ or by phone at 251-414-8170

Federal site: http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/