Since beginning disbursement of incentive payments for participation in the meaningful use incentive program, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has seen strong interest from providers, and one official believes participation will only grow in the coming months.

At a recent meeting of the HIT Policy Committee, officials revealed that the government has already issued nearly $2 billion between the Medicare and Medicaid incentive programs, according to Health Data Management.

Through November 2011, participants in the Medicare program had received $920 million and Medicaid participants had reaped $916 million.

Robert Anthony, an insurance specialist with the Office of E-Health Standards, told the news source that he expects these figures to begin going up at faster rates in the near future, as the deadline for attesting to meaningful use during 2011 will be February 29, 2012.

"We think we'll see a real influx of people coming in," he told the news source.

The statistics complement a report issued early this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicating that 52 percent of office-based physicians currently plan on taking advantage of the meaningful use incentive program.