You had until June 30, 2011 to e-prescribe at least 10 times and report G8553 to show CMS you were e-prescribing successfully. Now that June 30 has come and gone, many of your peers who didn't meet the requirement are betting that CMS will finalize its proposed rule adding four new hardship exemptions for e-prescribing, so they can avoid the 1% payment penalty in 2012. But there is a plan B just in case the proposed hardship exemptions don't materialize.

We're deep into the pages of the proposed 2012 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and still haven't seen light at the end of the tunnel, but one thing is clear already: weighing in at 621 pages, this is one slim tome compared to the 2011 proposed fee schedule. The 2011 edition was 1,250 pages, which means this year's version is less than half the length, or 49.6% if you want to be precise. TIP: Read our initial fee schedule findings here, if you haven't already. The biggest reason for the big difference in size has to be the health reform law, which required CMS to start turning legislation into actual rulemaking.

CMS unassigned specialty code “95” from indicating advanced diagnostic imaging accreditation and designated the code as “open” starting April 1, according to CMS Transmittal 2248 released June 24. NOTE: PECOS will no longer recognize specialty code 95.

 CMS has finally confirmed that it will axe the clinical signature requirement rule, as we first reported in Part B News way back in February. The rule, which was set to take effect Jan. 1, 2011, would've required all clinical lab orders to be physically signed by ordering physicians. It was delayed to April 1, 2011 after taking a withering barrage of fire from advocacy groups, particularly the American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA).

CMS is putting the finishing touches on its proposed 2012 Physician Fee Schedule and expects to release it "very shortly," in the words of Stewart Streimer, director of the agency's Provider Billing Group. This vague hint was one of the first announcements Streimer made during today's physician open door call.