Eased hardship exception looms for meaningful use program

Providers will get relief from meaningful use penalties in 2017 if a bill that passed Congress late last week gains President Barack Obama's signature.

 

The bill (S.2425) would give all ambulatory care providers the option to apply for a meaningful use hardship exception by March 15, 2016, to avoid cuts to Medicare payments in 2017. The potential cuts -- up to 2% -- reflect the 2015 meaningful use reporting period, for which most providers were reporting stage 1 or stage 2 meaningful use.

 

Recently CMS announced that providers could file a hardship exception -- and avoid penalties -- if they encountered various technical or operational difficulties during the 2015 reporting period, such as a change in their technology vendor.

 

The new legislation would open up the hardship-exception application to any physician practice. Recently, CMS had taken steps to ease the burden on physicians, but many in the physician community nevertheless objected to the program.

 

Read the full text of S.2425 here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2425/titles.