Beginning Sun Jan 1, 2012, eligible professionals who have not successfully met the requirements of the eRx incentive program (or, alternately, qualify for a significant hardship exemption) will be subject to the 2012 eRx payment adjustment. The adjustment will reduce Medicare payment rates by 1% of the provider’s allowable Medicare Part B charges.
The deadline to request a hardship exemption for the 2012 eRx payment adjustment is Tues., Nov 1.
You can determine if you are subject to the 2012 eRx payment adjustment here. Determine if you meet any of the hardship exemption categories specified by CMS in the 2011 Medicare Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program Final Rule. In addition, a Quick Reference Guide is available to help you understand the changes that the eRx Final Rule made to the 2011 Medicare eRx Incentive Program.
To be considered for an exemption under the significant hardship exemption category “Eligible professionals who register to participate in the Medicare or Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs and adopt Certified EHR Technology,” an eligible professional must:
- Have registered for either the Medicare or Medicaid EHR Incentive Program (for instructions on how to register for one of the EHR Incentive Programs, refer to the Registration and Attestation page of the EHR Incentive Programs section of the CMS website at http://www.CMS.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/20_RegistrationandAttestation.asp)
- Providers have to show that they adopted certified EHR technology no later than Oct 1, 2011, and provide identifying information about the certified EHR Technology. In order to qualify for an exemption to the 2012 eRx payment adjustment under this significant hardship exemption category, it is not necessary that an eligible professional receive an incentive payment under the Medicare or Medicaid EHR Incentive Program
In order to initiate registration for the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program, visit https://EHRincentives.CMS.gov/hitech/login.action and follow the instructions to begin the registration process. Obtaining a CMS EHR Incentive Programs registration number, even if the registration is not successfully completed, suffices for the purposes of applying for a significant hardship exemption for the 2012 Medicare e-Prescribing payment adjustment.
To request an exemption, individual eligible professionals must submit their hardship exemption requests through the Quality Communications Support Page and group practices participating under the group practice reporting option (GPRO) must submit hardship exemption requests via a letter to CMS. Please remember that CMS will review these requests on a case-by-case basis. All decisions on significant hardship exemption requests will be final.
For additional information and resources, please visit http://www.CMS.gov/ERXincentive.
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