Health Information Management

CMS reopens meaningful use hardship exception

HIM-HIPAA Insider, October 13, 2014

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by Jaclyn Fitzgerald, Editor

 
CMS recently announced that it will once again allow eligible hospitals and professionals to submit meaningful use hardship exception applications. The new deadline for submitting applications is November 30, 2014. The previous deadlines were April 1, 2014, for eligible hospitals, and July 1, 2014, for eligible professionals.
 
Eligible hospitals and professionals can submit a hardship application by the new deadline if they were unable to fully implement 2014 edition certified EHR technology (CEHRT) due to delays in the availability of the technology. In addition, the application process is open to eligible professionals that could not attest to meaningful use by October 1, 2014, and eligible hospitals that could not attest by July 1, 2014, using the options in the CMS 2014 CEHRT Flexibility Rule.
 
The Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 requires that CMS apply payment adjustments for eligible hospitals, eligible professionals, and critical access hospitals that are not meaningful users of CEHRT. However, the act also permits CMS to conduct case-by-case reviews of organizations that apply for hardship exceptions.
 
View the CMS EHR Incentive Programs website.



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