Senate votes to expand eligibility for meaningful use

After previously stripping a provision from a jobs bill to expand federal health IT incentives to hospital-based physicians, the Senate last week passed legislation that would make physicians who work in outpatient areas of hospitals eligible for the same Medicare and Medicaid bonuses as their office-based brethren. However, the "meaningful use" program still would exclude practitioners in inpatient and emergency departments.

H.R. 4213, the American Workers, State, and Business Relief Act of 2010, is primarily intended to extend unemployment benefits, provide some tax breaks and delay the scheduled Medicare physician payment cut until Oct. 1, but it includes language that would change Medicare and Medicaid rules to widen physician eligibility for health IT subsidies under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The legislation passed the Senate on a 62-36 vote, and now must go before the House.

for more information:
- read this CMIO news brief

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