Four additional ways to help EPs duck E-prescribing Penalty

According to a new proposal, EPs would be eligible to request for hardship exemption till October 1, 2011.

Next year, you may be subject to a one percent payment adjustment on your Part B payments if you don't get onboard the e-prescribing bandwagon in 2011. This payment adjustment will keep going up with each year - 1.5 percent in 2013 and 2 percent in 2014.

Exemption criteria too limited? Although the agency had laid down that practitioners could evade the penalty, practitioners were not too happy as they found the exemptions were too limited and did not include realistic situations. Taking this into consideration, the agency has come up with four more ways eligible professionals can avoid the penalty:

New proposal aims to exempt those who have just got their technology in place or are getting it in position

The agency's new proposal will offer exemption to those practitioners who have just got their technology in place or are in the process of doing so as they may not have e-prescribed ten times within the first half of the current year.

Physicians who prescribe narcotics or medications that cannot be transmitted electronically will get a breather

Secondly, there are many physicians who prescribe narcotics. Practices that prescribe large quantities of these drugs may find that they cannot take the electronic way even if they wanted to participate in it.

Patients who do not need to prescribe medications for several reasons are likely to get hardship exemption

Some practitioners seem like they're eligible for the penalty because they carry out enough visits; however that may not be the reality because chances are they may not prescribe medications for several reasons. Keeping this in mind, the agency is proposing that the physicians and other EPs be allowed to send a request for a hardship exemption.

Not enough opportunities to report the e-prescribing measure owing to limitations in the measure's denominator

Sometimes it may so happen that a surgeon may prescribe electronically but the prescriptions may not be associated with the kind of visits that the e-prescribing measure's denominators include. The new proposal comes to rescue of these physician.