AMA Secures Extension for E-prescribing Hardship Exemption Deadline • New Deadline: November 8, 2011

After hearing yesterday that some physicians were having difficulty accessing the CMS Communication Support Page, AMA was able to work with CMS to secure an extension. The new deadline to file for an e-prescribing hardship exemption is Tuesday, November 8, 2011. The hardship exemption categories include:

• Your practice is located in a rural area without highspeed internet access.
• Your practice is located in an area without sufficient available pharmacies for e-prescribing (CMS clarified by providing more examples, including disruption of e-prescriptions between physician offices and pharmacies caused by natural disasters).
• You are registered to participate in the Medicare or Medicaid electronic health record (EHR) incentive program, and you adopted certified EHR technology by October 1, 2011, and did so prior to requesting an exemption.
• You are unable to electronically prescribe due to local, state, or federal law or regulation, (CMS clarified that physicians who mainly prescribe narcotics but due to certain limitations cannot submit these prescriptions electronically can apply for this exemption category).
• Limited prescribing (you do not prescribe on a regular basis).
• There were too few opportunities for you to report the e-prescribing measure due to limitations of the measure’s denominator (you do e-prescribe, but your electronic prescriptions are not related to qualifying visits/services).

Where to File for a Hardship Exemption

Click here for filing for a hardship exemption.

What to Do if You Have Problems Accessing the Hardship Exemption Webpage

CMS and the QualityNet Help Desk has been receiving calls from eligible professionals who are having difficulty with accessing the Communication Support Page. After doing some research they found that the problem is related to an issue with the internet browser. CMS is asking eligible professionals to take the step below if they are unsuccessful in accessing the Communication Support Page when trying to submit their hardship exemption request.

After clicking on the above link (i.e., here: https://www.qualitynet.org/portal/server.pt/community/communications_sup...), select Tools/Internet Options/Advanced. Scroll down toward the bottom and locate the “Use TLS 1.0” choice. Place a checkmark in the “Use TLS 1.0.” Click OK. Attempt to access the site again.

If you still have trouble accessing the site, the QualityNet Help Desk may be reached at 1 (866) 288-8912 or email at qnetsupport@sdps.org from 7am to 7pm CT, Monday through Friday. Due to the high volume of calls that the QualityNet Help Desk has been receiving, there may be a waiting period.

For More information on the E-Prescribing Penalty Program

Please click here to review a fact sheet.