The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released additional guidelines to state Medicaid agencies on August 17 on the availability of 90 percent Federal financial participation (FFP) on state expenditures for Medicaid administrative activities related to implementing health information technology. These activities include the administration of 100 percent FFP incentive payments to eligible hospitals and practitioners to adopt and use certified health IT; oversight responsibilities such as tracking hospitals’ and practitioners’ attestations of “meaningful use” of electronic health records (EHRs) systems; and other activities in collaboration with state health information exchanges (HIEs) and other stakeholders to use health IT as a tool to promote more efficient, high quality care. CMS’s August 17 letter to all state Medicaid directors offers the most specific guidance yet available on qualifying for 90 percent Medicaid administrative FFP, identifying correctly all allowable and non-allowable activities and costs, and allocating all such costs in line with OMB Circular A-87 principles. CMS also outlines criteria it will use in 2011 to determine when each state will be authorized to begin releasing incentive payments to providers. Key criteria include an approved State Medicaid Health IT Plan (SMHP), an approved Implementation Advance Planning Document (IAPD), and successfully tested interfaces with CMS information systems. 

About Tom Entrikin

A former policy specialist with the U.S. Health Care Financing Administration (now Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)), Tom Entrikin has vast experience providing technical assistance to states on Medicaid eligibility, coverage, and reimbursement; provider certification and enrollment; program integrity; recovery of third party liabilities; Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) performance specifications and operations; interagency agreements; contracts with managed care organizations; and Medicaid waiver programs. Since joining PCG in 1992, Tom has assisted in the design, development, and implementation of revenue projects for school-based health services; hospital-based and municipal projects for pregnant women, infants, and children; state services offered through youth services, child welfare, mental health, substance abuse, and public health agencies; and reimbursement systems for hospitals, long term care facilities, and community-based waiver programs. He has made presentations at national conferences on Medicaid waiver programs and participated in the development of a manual on self-determination under waiver programs for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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