Hospital incentives under the HITECH Act are based upon inpatient hospital services, and the hospital must be a 'meaningful electronic health records (EHR) user' to be eligible for payment. In general, an eligible hospital can receive a base amount payment plus discharge-related payments that span a four-year period. The hospital base payment amount (at the time of this writing) is:

A. $1,000,000

B. $2,000,000

C. $3,000,000

D. none of the above