New Interactive Hardship Exception Tool for Eligible Professionals

Eligible professionals can now use CMS’ new interactive tool to help determine if they will avoid upcoming 2015 and 2016 Medicare EHR Incentive Program payment adjustments by demonstrating meaningful use, or if they should apply for a hardship exception.

If an eligible professional determines that they need to apply for a hardship exception, the application must be submitted by July 1, 2014CMS will review applications to determine whether or not a hardship exception will be granted. If approved, the exception is valid for one year.

Applying for Hardship Exception
When submitting hardship exception applications, entries must include supporting documentation that proves demonstrating meaningful use presented significant hardship.

CMS has posted hardship exception applications on the EHR website for:

Please read and follow the submission instructions on the application. Note that all required supporting documentation must be included at the time of submission. Completing your application online and submitting it electronically toEHRhardship@provider-resources.com, with all required supporting documentation, will reduce the application processing time. Please do not submit hand-written applications.

Hardship Exception Tipsheets
You can also avoid payment adjustments by successfully demonstrating meaningful use prior to the payment adjustment. Tipsheets are available on the CMS website that outline when eligible professionals must demonstrate meaningful use in order to avoid the payment adjustments.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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