CMS to Push Meaningful Use EHR Incentive Program to End of November

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has delayed the deadline for submitting meaningful use hardship exceptions for the electronic health records (EHRs) incentive program to November 30. The deadline was previously slated for April 1, 2014, for eligible hospitals and July 1, 2014, for eligible professionals.

The reopened hardship exception submission period is for eligible professionals and hospitals that have been unable to fully implement 2014 edition certified EHR technology due to vendor delays in making those EHRs available. In addition, it applies to eligible professionals who were unable to attest by October 1, 2014, and hospitals that were unable to attest by July 1, 2014, using the flexibility options provided by the CMS.

The hardship exceptions enable providers to avoid the 2015 Medicare payment adjustments for not demonstrating meaningful use, with penalties at 1% for physicians who have never shown meaningful use or who have done so in 2011 or 2012 but failed to attest again in 2013.

Eligible professionals who attested to meaningful use for the first time in 2014 had to do so by October 1 to avoid penalties.

In May, the CMS proposed the flexibility rule that allows EPs to use 2011 edition or 2014 certified EHRs this year, but it was not finalized until September; therefore, some physicians could not apply for the hardship exception by July 1 because they did not know whether the rule would go into effect. The postponement of the hardship exception deadline ensures those physicians will not have to pay a penalty.

The American Medical Association (AMA), which had protested the original deadline along with the Medical Group Management Association, was happy about the delay announced by the CMS. "Medicare physicians who were unable to fully implement their new certified [EHR] software due to delays in receiving it and who were unable to successfully attest by the October 1 deadline can apply for the exception through November 30," the AMA said in a statement. "This change will allow more physicians to avoid an unfair Meaningful Use financial penalty in 2015."

As of September 30, about 44,000 eligible professionals had applied for a hardship exception.—Kerri Fitzgerald

Source: Medscape. 2014; CMS Delays Meaningful Use Hardship Exception.