July 1 is the deadline for Medicare-eligible hospitals to submit a hardship exception application for the 2019 payment adjustment year of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program.
Hospitals might be eligible for an exception—avoiding a negative payment adjustment—if they can demonstrate that complying with meaningful use would cause a significant hardship. The circumstances leading to the hardship must be beyond the hospital’s control and the hospital must specifically outline how the circumstances impaired its ability to meet meaningful use.
Hardship exceptions will be valid only for the 2019 payment adjustment year, which corresponds to the 2017 reporting period. Hospitals that successfully demonstrated meaningful use in program year 2017 do not need to submit an application.
Completed applications and supporting documentation must be attached to an email and sent to [email protected].
Contact Senior Director of Policy Erin O’Malley at [email protected] or 202.585.0127 with questions.
