According to an announcement, from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), both 
Washington and New Mexico Medicaid programs are going to be granted thousands of dollars as federal matching funds for state planning activities, which are needed before implementation of the electronic health record (EHR) incentive program designed by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. Washington is about to have nearly $967,000, while New Mexico will be granted $405,000 for the EHR planning work.
The federal law offers 90% federal match for activates of state planning. The law aims to deliver the incentive payments to Medicaid providers, to confirm their proper payments by conducting audits, in addition to the contribution in state-wide efforts to improve interoperability and proper use of EHR technology state-wide and, eventually, throughout the United States. The director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations at CMS, Cindy Mann, said "We congratulate Washington and New Mexico for qualifying for these federal matching funds to assist its plan for implementing the Recovery Act's EHR incentive program," she added "Meaningful and interoperable use of EHRs in Medicaid will increase healthcare efficiency, reduce medical errors and improve quality-outcomes and patient satisfaction within and across the states."
Washington and New Mexico are going to use the federal matching funds for planning activities, including carrying out of a comprehensive analysis to evaluate and assess the ongoing status of healthcare IT activities. The evaluation process is going to involve both states gathering information on issues such as existing obstacles that slow to the use of HER, the eligibility of a provider for EHR incentive payments, and the development of state Medicaid healthcare IT plans, which will manage long-term use of healthcare IT.
