Dive Brief:
- Eligible providers could see speedier turnarounds on applications for exemption from the meaningful use requirements of the EHR incentive payment program thanks to a bill signed into law by President Barack Obama late last month.
- The Patient Access and Medicare Protection Act allows CMS to batch process hardship requests by categories, rather than case by case.
- Providers also have more “flexibility in applying the hardship exemption for meaningful use for the 2015 EHR reporting period for 2017 payment adjustments,” according to the law by Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH).
Dive Insight:
The new law, S. 2425, extends the filing deadline for hardship exemptions from January 1 until March 15 for doctors and other healthcare professionals, and until April 15 for hospitals. However, CMS may continue to accept exemption filings beyond those dates on a case-by-case basis.
Physician and hospital groups pushed for the legislation, arguing the delay of the Stage 2 modifications rule left them with insufficient time to comply with the meaningful use requirements. Under the Oct. 16, 2015 rule, providers can avoid a fine if they attest to meeting the Stage 2 requirements for 90 consecutive days in 2015 — an impossibility since there were fewer than 90 days left in the year.
Previously, CMS had agreed to grant hardship exemptions for 2015 if eligible physicians couldn’t attest as a result of the lateness of the rule.
“It’s going to be incumbent on the provider community to work with CMS to ensure meaningful use program participants understand the new pathway set forth by this law and the associated deadlines,” Leslie Krigstein, vice president of congressional affairs at the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, told FierceEMR when the law was signed.
