TOPEKA — Twenty-three Kansas hospitals will receive a total of $10.4 million in federal Medicaid incentives for implementing electronic health records, officials at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced today.

Hospitals qualify for the incentive payments if at least 10 percent of their patients are on Medicaid. To receive the payments, hospitals had to attest to purchasing, implementing or upgrading an EHR system in 2011.

Doctors may also qualify for the incentives. Their application period ends March 31.

The incentive payments were made available by the federal economic stimulus law passed in 2009 for health care providers whose electronic health record systems meet certain federal standards.

This is the first year the payments were available to providers of Medicare or Medicaid services.

Kansas doctors started receiving Medicare-based incentives in May, and hospitals began receiving the Medicare bonus payments in October.