Medicare eligible professionals and eligible hospitals that are not "meaningful users" of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology will be subject to payment adjustments under the Medicare EHR Incentive Programs beginning on October 1, 2014 for hospitals and on January 1, 2015 for eligible professionals. Eligible professionals and hospitals may be exempt from payment adjustment, however, if demonstrating meaningful use would result in a significant hardship. CMS recently released the hardship exception applications, which outline the specific circumstances that CMS has determined pose a significant barrier to achieving meaningful use. Of particular interest, CMS has added an exception category for "2014 EHR Vendor Issues," to cover circumstances under which the professional's or hospital's EHR vendor was unable to obtain 2014 certification, or the eligible professional or hospital was unable to implement meaningful use due to 2014 EHR certification delays. The hardship application is due by April 1, 2014 for eligible hospitals, and by July 1, 2014 for eligible professionals. Important to certain specialists, the application for eligible professionals states that physicians classified in the Medicare Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS) with a primary area of practice of Diagnostic Radiology (30), Nuclear Medicine (36), Interventional Radiology (94), Anesthesiology(05), or Pathology (22) are automatically exempt from the 2015 payment adjustment and are not required to complete the exception application.

This article is presented for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal advice.