This week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced its intent to reopen the submission period for hardship exception applications for eligible professionals and hospitals participating in the Medicare Meaningful Use Program in order to avoid the 2015 Medicare payment adjustments for not demonstrating meaningful use of Certified Electronic Health Record Technology (“CEHRT”).
The new deadline will be November 30, 2014. Previously, the hardship exception application deadline was April 1, 2014 for eligible hospitals and July 1, 2014 for eligible professionals. The reopened hardship exception application submission period is for eligible professionals and hospitals that:
- Have been unable to fully implement 2014 Edition CEHRT due to delays in 2014 Edition CEHRT availability; and
- Were unable to attest by October 1, 2014 and eligible hospitals that were unable to attest by July 1, 2014 using the flexibility options provided in the CMS 2014 CEHRT Flexibility Rule.
These are the only circumstances that CMS will consider for this reopened hardship exception application submission period.
Click here to read CMS’s full announcement regarding the hardship exception application extension.
If you have questions regarding meaningful use and the hardship exception application process, please contact:
- Jeff Short at (317) 977-1413 or jshort@wp.hallrender.com;
- Ammon Fillmore at (317) 977-1492 or afillmore@wp.hallrender.com; or
- Your regular Hall Render attorney.
