In its letter, the American Hospital Association urged CMS to address a claims processing limitation that excluded the above mentioned physicians. Many of those physicians serve critical access hospitals that use the Method 2 billing approach in their claims, and due to system constraints, CMS does not include Method 2 claims when it identifies eligible physicians for incentive programs. According to the AHA, if the error were to be left uncorrected, those physicians would become eligible for incentives only the year before penalties begin.
While CMS has addressed the error, due to CMS system changes that will be implemented over 2013, these physicians will not be able to submit attestations until January 2014, and they will not be able to receive incentives for 2012, according to the report. For more information, see the CMS factsheet.
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