AMA urges all physicians subject to the 2015 Medicare MU program to apply for exemption

Saturday, January 30, 2016 11:18 AM

Prior to adjourning for the holidays in December 2015, Congress passed the Patient Access and Medicare Protection Act (PAMPA), which directed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to make changes to the Medicare EHR Incentive Program hardship exception process that allows physicians to avoid a Meaningful Use (MU) penalty in 2017. The American Medical Association supported these changes.

The AMA is encouraging ALL physicians subject to the 2015 Medicare MU program to apply for the hardship.

The federal CMS has stated that it will broadly accept hardship exemptions because of the delayed publication of the program regulations. Applying for the hardship will not prevent a physician from earning an incentive. It simply protects a physician from receiving a MU penalty. Therefore, physicians who believe that they met the MU requirements for the 2015 reporting period should still apply for the hardship protection. Note that the program operates on a two-year look-back period, meaning that physicians who are granted an exception for the 2015 program will avoid a financial penalty for 2017.

View step-by-step instructions for completing the hardship exception application here.