NOTE: CMS has since restored the website. Merely a week after CMS released its Aug. 31 Electronic Prescribing (e-Rx) Incentive Program final rule, the website providers must use to claim the four new and two established hardship exemptions is down since at least 9am EST.

QualityNet reported that it is experiencing a system-wide connectivity issue which is also affecting the PQRI portal in a voice message recorded on the site’s helpline (see contact info below).

Most of your peers are happy with their Medicare contractors, but Part B contractors scored lower than other types, especially for enrollment as a business function, according to the latest 2011 Medicare Contractor Provider Satisfaction Survey (MCPSS). Overall, the average score for provider performance was 3.77 out of 5.00, or about 75.4%. The results for 2011 have changed little from 2010, according to the executive summary of the survey, which is commissioned annually by CMS.

HHS will dole out a total of $11.9 million to rural health clinics through its pilot program to support their adoption of electronic health records (EHR) systems and health information technology (HIT) such as telemedicine equipment, the agency announced Sept. 2 in a news release. 

You have at least a 93% chance of being required to revalidate a physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant by March 23, 2013. Physicians make up the bulk of providers who need to be revalidated as part of CMS’s new enrollment revalidation drive, which affects all providers who enrolled before March 25, 2011. Nearly 52% of these folks are physicians, according to a draft CMS statement-of-work document released May 27. Non-physicians make up the next biggest segment, representing 20.8% of the pie. 

Unfortunately, it’s pretty much a guarantee that you are going to get sued by a patient, according to a study published in the Aug. 18 issue of New England Journal of Medicine.  In fact, the study found that 99% of physicians in high-risk specialties, i.e. surgery, and 75% in lower-risk areas will get sued by the time they reach 65.