Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Get your exemption application to CMS no later than Nov. 1 if you want to be considered. Hoping to avoid a one percent hit to your Part B pay next year? CMS just made that a lot easier by issuing a Final Rule that offers four exemptions to the e-prescribing penalty that will kick in next year. As you are probably aware, starting in 2012, practitioners will be subject to a one percent payment adjustment on your Part B pay if you don't successfully participate in e-prescribing this year. In 2013, that payment adjustment will go up to 1.5 percent, and in 2014 it will rise to two percent. Although CMS previously announced ways that practitioners could avoid the penalty, physician practices complained that the exemptions were too limited and did not cover all of the realistic scenarios. To that end, CMS finalized four additional ways that eligible professionals (EPs) [...]