CMS extends hardship exemption deadlines
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has recently reopened the submission period for meaningful use exemption applications. Eligible providers and hospitals will now have until Nov. 30 of this year to avoid 2015 Medicare payment adjustments. Hospitals incapable of implementing meaningful use principles of certified electronic health record technology previously had until April and providers until July.
Although the CMS had recently announced that approximately 44,000 providers had applied for hardship exceptions to avoid the 1 percent reduction Medicare Part B claims in accordance to these previous deadlines, it did not say how many were approved. The CMS did not include an explanation for its reopening of the application period, but it is most likely due to the immense pressure the agency has been under to offer more guidance and help for the providers having a difficult time sufficiently adhering to the 2014 meaningful use criteria, according to FierceEMR.
Who does the deadline extension apply to?
Since vendors have been delayed in upgrading their software, many providers have experienced problems in transitioning to the 2014 certification criteria. The CMS had already extended the exemption application to ease this issue earlier this year. However, the large number of applicants has brought the CMS to extend the period once more.
According to Healthcare IT News, the reopening of the application for exemption is meant specifically for two types of circumstances faced by eligible providers and hospitals. The first is providers and hospitals that have been unable to fully implement 2014 Edition certified EHR technology, or CEHRT, as a result of delays in 2014 Edition CEHRT availability. The second group that can apply is providers that were unable to attest by Oct. 1 and hospitals that were unable to attest by July 1 using the options in the Flexibility Rule allowing for some flexibility in attesting in 2014.
Since the final deadlines for applications had passed before the Flexibility Rule was implemented, many stakeholders requested that the CMS extend the application period. This triggered uncertainty among providers in regard to how they should proceed, making it difficult for them to take full advantage of the Flexibility Rule.
How the reopening will affect providers and hospitals
There have been a mix of responses to the deadline extension, causing debates as to how providers and hospitals will be impacted by the new deadline. The American Medical Association, for example, has announced that it supports the CMS's decision to throw eligible providers a lifeline with the added flexibility to apply for an exemption. It comes at an ideal time, following the new final rules for meaningful use in 2014 and the closing of a recent reporting period for hospitals, according to EHR Intelligence.
AMA President Robert M. Wah, M.D., said in a recent public statement, "Giving physicians more time to file for a hardship exemption provides necessary relief as many physicians are struggling to meet a number of reporting mandates to avoid multiple penalties."
The association is particularly supportive of the fact that eligible providers in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program have the ability to avoid 2015 payment adjustments.
However, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives pointed to the mixed outcomes that may come as a result of the deadline extension.
"We have come up against another situation where policymakers are making policy after the fact to correct the problem they should have seen coming," CHIME Director of Public Policy Jeff Smith told EHR Intelligence. "There is a cohort of physicians who will be more impacted than hospitals. On the whole, it is a wash."
Although providers now have more flexibility for the exemption application, it also takes away a significant financial opportunity that would have been helpful in offsetting the expense of adopting an EHR system.
