Dive Brief:
- Health Management Associates has announced that several of its hospitals had improperly claimed $31 million from the federal EMR incentive program known as Meaningful Use.
- According to iHealthBeat, the hospital system realized that the hospitals made an error in certifying its EMR technology.
- Because of the certification error, 11 of the chains' 71 hospitas did not meet Meaningful Use criteria for incentive payments.
Dive Analysis:
This group of HMA hospitals is unlikely to be the last to return Meaningful Use payments, though it may be one of the more visible examples. The federal government is actively auditing hospitals to see if they can provide that they actually met Meaningful Use standards, and is likely to demand refunds from some of them. Hospitals had best be sure that their MU documentation is in order, or they, too could end up writing a big refund check.