Physicians and hospitals seeking a hardship exemption for not being able to meet meaningful use requirements in 2015 will have more time to file their application.
Applications for both groups are now due July 1. Previously, the deadline was March 15 for physicians and other eligible professionals and April 1 for hospitals.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said in a statement that it is “extending the deadline so providers have sufficient time to submit their applications to avoid adjustments to their Medicare payments in 2017.”
An agency spokesman did not have any details on how many exemption requests have been made to date, nor did he say how many the agency was expecting.
Last year, Congress approved a process to allow the CMS to batch process hardship exemption requests. Before that, law required that the agency consider requests on a case by case basis.
Filing instructions for a hardship exemption can be found here.