You must report a hardship exemption by June 30 or
e-prescribe at least 10 times by that date to avoid a 1.5%
Medicare pay cut starting Jan. 1, 2013, CMS says in a recent
MLN Matters article.
Providers are “successful” when they e-prescribe at least
10 times during the first six months of the year. Getting in 10
e-prescriptions just gets you out of a negative payment adjustment;
it takes 25 by the end of a year to earn the bonus under
CMS’ e-prescribing (e-Rx) incentive program (PBN 5/16/11).
Practices trying to claim a hardship exemption in 2011 had to
use an online reporting system that was badly bogged down by
the volume of exemption requests. It was so bad that CMS was
unable to process some requests in time to avoid automatic
payment penalties against practices who submitted exemptions
on time but late in the year (PBN 3/19/12).
Claim exemption now, beat the crowd.
Avoid that hassle this year by starting early, CMS says.
The agency has made speed and stability improvements
to the website used to report the exemptions. Follow these
tips to apply for 2013 exemptions. Report a G-code on claims for exemptions
because of lack of Internet or participating pharmacies.
You don’t need to bother with CMS’ website if you are
exempt because you practice in an area lacking broadband
Internet or in an area without enough pharmacies
available that accept e-prescriptions. Report G8642 for
lack of Internet and G8643 for lack of pharmacies, CMS
says. These codes can be on any Part B claim that has at
least one billable Medicare service, regardless of whether
the claim has an e-Rx measure denominator, CMS says in MLN Matters.
Please contact us if you have any questions. |
