CMS provides update on EHR Hardship exceptions for eligible professionals who haven’t applied yet.
Those eligible professionals within the Medicare EHR Incentive Program who did not successfully meet meaningful use in 2013 may still submit a hardship exception application for payment year 2015, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
As HealthData Management reports, the CMS deadline for eligible professionals to apply for 2013 reporting year-2015 payment adjustment year hardship exceptions is July 1. To date, 600 eligible professionals have applied for hardship exceptions, according to a CMS official who made a presentation during the Health IT Policy Committee’s May 6 meeting.
Elisabeth Myers, policy and outreach lead for the CMS Office of E-Health Standards and Services, told the committee that “We have received a number of hardship exemption applications. I know that that’s been a big question of how those are going.”
Acceptable conditions for applying for the hardship exemptions include EHR vendor issues, lack of infrastructure and unforeseen/uncontrollable circumstances, “lack of control over the availability of Certified EHR Technology” and “lack of Face-to-Face Interaction.” Hardship exceptions are valid for one payment year only; new applications must be submitted each year to continue a hardship exception claim for the following payment year.
While the application deadline for eligible professionals is less than two months away, the deadline for eligible hospitals was April 1. As of that deadline, Myers said that 72 eligible hospitals applied for hardship exceptions and CMS has granted 66 exceptions and dismissed six applications based on the documentation that was provided.
“I want to make it clear that they were not denied. They were dismissed. Those six hospitals applied for this year when they didn’t need to,” she said.
Determinations made by CMS regarding hardship exceptions are final and cannot be appealed. More information about the EHR hardship exceptions may be found on the CMS website.
