(May 5, 2023) – On May 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services opened the Hardship Exception application period for hospitals that participated in the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program in the calendar year 2022. Hospitals may be exempt from Medicare penalties and avoid a downward payment adjustment if they can show that compliance with requirements for being a meaningful certified electronic health record technology user would result in a significant hardship.
The deadline to submit a hardship exception application is July 31, 2023, for eligible hospitals and Sept. 30, 2023, for Critical Access Hospitals. More information on the Medicare Hardship Exception application can be found here.
--Sally Othmer