Hardship Exclusion for Medicare Interoperability – July 1. Beginning in 2019, all eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals, dual-eligible hospitals, and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) are required to use 2015 edition certified electronic health record technology (CEHRT) to meet the requirements of the Promoting Interoperability (PI) Programs. Eligible hospitals and CAHs may be exempted from the Medicare downward payment adjustment if they can show that compliance with the requirements would result in a significant hardship. Hardship exceptions are valid for only one payment adjustment year, so hospitals must submit an exclusion application each year. The deadline to submit an application is July 1, 2019 for eligible hospitals and November 30, 2019 for CAHs.
