On December 28, President Obama signed The Patient Access and Medicare Protection Act, passed on December 18 by both houses of Congress. The new law includes a provision titled, “Ensuring flexibility in applying hardship exception for meaningful use for 2015 EHR reporting period for 2017 payment adjustments which seeks to make it easier for providers to obtain a hardship exception for 2015 meaningful use requirements.
At issue is the timing of the final rule for modified Stage 2 meaningful use, which came out in October after the start of the final 90-day reporting period for 2015. Based on the timing of the final rule, CMS indicated that it would make broad allowances for providers unable to meet the new requirements in 2015. While Congress apparently drafted this new law to ensure flexibility from CMS, the law does not explicitly grant an automatic blanket exception for all providers as advocated by the AMA and others. Rather, providers will need to apply for the hardship exception, as in previous years.
In spite of any ambiguity in the law, industry stakeholders suggest CMS will create an easier path for all providers to receive the exception than in past years by not requiring a case-by-case review of applications. CMS is expected to release an application for 2015 hardship exceptions in the next few months.
Impact for NextGen Healthcare clients: Clients who were unable to meet the modified Stage 2 requirements due to the timing of the final rule will have an opportunity to apply for a hardship exception. However, it is important for any client who was able to meet the modified Stage 2 requirements in 2015 to attest for MU by the February 29 deadline. Only those EPs who were unable to meet the attestation thresholds and requirements should apply for an exception. Hardship exceptions apply only to MU penalties, and therefore failure to attest would result in a loss of any eligible incentives payments as well as negatively impacting other programs or policies requiring MU success. At the same time, it is important to stay on track for meeting the modified Stage 2 requirements in 2016 to avoid future penalties, and satisfying requirements for any remaining incentives. It will be important to engage with any registries (immunization, syndromic, public health, cancer, or specialty) prior to 3/1/2016 in order to meet the 2016 requirements.