The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has extended the deadline for physicians and other eligible professionals to attest to meaningful use for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program 2013 reporting year. Also, some hospitals are being offered the opportunity to attest retroactively and possibly avoid 2015 penalties for missing the Nov. 30 2013 deadline.
For eligible professionals, the previous deadline of Feb. 28 has been pushed back to Mar. 31, 2014. This new, extended deadline allow providers more time to submit their meaningful use data and receive an incentive payment for the 2013 program year. Eligible professionals still must have met the criteria for meaningful use by December 31, 2013, the reporting period deadline for the most recent incentive period.
For hospitals who may have experienced difficulty attesting, CMS is offering them a “one-time opportunity” to submit their attestation retroactively and possibly avoid the program’s 2015 penalties for failing to comply in 2013. Eligible hospitals who were supposed to attest by November 30, 2013 for the most recent reporting period which ended Sept. 30, 2013 must contact CMS for assistance by March 15, 2014 in order to take advantage of this opportunity.
The Medicaid portion of the EHR Incentive program is not affected by these new relief provisions.
Editor’s Note: Subsequent to the publication of this article, CMS has renamed the “Meaningful Use” programs and MIPS “Advancing Care Information” category to “Promoting Interoperability”.
