The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced a plan to make it easier for physicians to comply with the agency's e-prescribing imperative, which will penalize physicians starting in 2012 for not electronically transmitting their Medicare patients' prescriptions to pharmacies, according to a Medscape report.
CMS also plans to give physicians more time to fulfill the tasks necessary to avoid the penalty.
While physicians who fail to electronically transmit prescriptions will receive penalties, successful electronic prescribers will receive bonuses. The penalty for "unsuccessful" e-prescribers will be 1 percent of Physician Fee Schedule charges in 2012, 1.5 percent in 2013 and 2 percent in 2014; bonuses will be 2 percent of PFS charges in 2009 and 2010, 1 percent in 2011 and 2012 and 0.5 percent in 2013.
The CMS proposals released on July 1 would give physicians a chance to avoid penalties in 2013 and 2014. If they failed to earn an e-prescribing bonus in 2011, clinicians could avoid the 1.5 percent fee reduction in 2013 by submitting at least 10 electronic prescriptions in the first half of 2012. The 10 prescriptions could be associated with any PFS billing code, not just the codes required to earn the incentive. The same rules would apply to the 2014 payment adjustment.
These "second chances" come in addition to hardship exemptions proposed in May. Physicians who register for the federal incentive program for EHRs and adopt certified EHR technology would be exempt from the e-prescribing penalty in 2012.
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CMS also plans to give physicians more time to fulfill the tasks necessary to avoid the penalty.
While physicians who fail to electronically transmit prescriptions will receive penalties, successful electronic prescribers will receive bonuses. The penalty for "unsuccessful" e-prescribers will be 1 percent of Physician Fee Schedule charges in 2012, 1.5 percent in 2013 and 2 percent in 2014; bonuses will be 2 percent of PFS charges in 2009 and 2010, 1 percent in 2011 and 2012 and 0.5 percent in 2013.
The CMS proposals released on July 1 would give physicians a chance to avoid penalties in 2013 and 2014. If they failed to earn an e-prescribing bonus in 2011, clinicians could avoid the 1.5 percent fee reduction in 2013 by submitting at least 10 electronic prescriptions in the first half of 2012. The 10 prescriptions could be associated with any PFS billing code, not just the codes required to earn the incentive. The same rules would apply to the 2014 payment adjustment.
These "second chances" come in addition to hardship exemptions proposed in May. Physicians who register for the federal incentive program for EHRs and adopt certified EHR technology would be exempt from the e-prescribing penalty in 2012.
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