The deadline, which will allow CMS to review submissions by "categories of eligible professionals," should be welcome news to providers who face a potential 2% pay cut in 2017 based on their meaningful use reporting for calendar year 2015. However, the exact details of the revised submission guidelines -- including the thousand-dollar question of how the law will open up the door for eased hardship-exception access -- remain unclear.
At the time when the legislation awaited Obama's signature, a CMS spokesperson confirmed to Part B News that intrinsic details of S.2425 had yet to be ironed out. "None of this is finalized yet," the spokesperson said at the time.
Part B News had not heard back from CMS for further details at the time of this post. Keep an eye on the Part B News blog for more updates.