Pathologists May Be Exempt from EHR Penalty in Future Years, CMS Says

In response to House and Senate letters urging the Medicare agency to exempt pathologists from payment penalties linked to EHR meaningful use, CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner said hardship exemptions will continue to be available for pathologists and other specialties. Due to CAP advocacy, pathologists will receive an automatic exemption from the 2015 EHR meaningful use penalty that reduces Medicare pay by 1%. Next year will be the first year for the meaningful use payment adjustment, which is applied to physician payments when Medicare individual providers do not demonstrate EHR meaningful use by using certified technology and achieving objectives such as reporting clinical quality metrics electronically. The Medicare statute allows for hardship exemptions when physicians cannot meet meaningful use requirements. However, under current law these exemptions are limited to five years.