The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act provided funding to promote the adoption and meaningful use of certified EHR technology, including a Medicaid EHR program. In 2011, the first year of the Medicaid EHR program, 1,964 hospitals and 45,962 professionals were awarded a total of approximately $2.7 billion in Medicaid EHR incentive payments, according to a GAO report describing the characteristics of providers that participated in the program in 2011. Hospitals claimed $1.7 billion in these Medicaid EHR incentive payments, with a median payment amount of $613,512. Almost half of the hospitals (46%) receiving payments were located in the south, while the smallest proportion (15%) were located in the northeast. Also among hospitals receiving payments, 62% were located in urban areas, 80% were acute care hospitals, 57% percent were nonprofits, and 57% were not members of a chain, while hospitals with the highest number of total beds were twice as likely to receive an incentive payment than those with the fewest number of beds. With regard to professionals, who were awarded a total of $967 million in incentive payments, more than three times as many eligible professionals participated in the Medicaid EHR program than in the Medicare EHR program. The largest proportion of professionals who received a Medicaid EHR incentive payment for 2011 were in the south (37%), compared to 20% in the midwest. As with hospitals, most professionals receiving EHR incentive payments (83%) were located in urban areas. Additional details can be found in the full report, “Electronic Health Records: Number and Characteristics of Providers Awarded Medicaid Incentive Payments for 2011."