On November 24, 2014, CMS announced a one-month extension of the deadline for eligible hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) to attest to meaningful use for the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program 2014 reporting year. Medicare eligible hospitals must attest to meeting meaningful use requirements each year to receive an incentive and to avoid a payment adjustment. The deadline is being extended from 11:59 pm EST on November 30, 2014 to 11:59 pm EST on December 31, 2014, and CMS states this will “allow more time for hospitals to submit their meaningful use data and receive an incentive payment for the 2014 program year, as well as avoid the 2016 Medicare payment adjustment.”

CMS also extended the deadline for eligible hospitals and CAHs to electronically submit clinical quality measures (CQMs) until December 31, 2014.

Please note that these extensions are only for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program and will not affect the deadlines for the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program.

Upcoming Deadlines:

• December 31, 2014 at 11:59 pm ET: Attestation deadline for Medicare eligible hospitals and CAHs for the 2014 program year
• December 31, 2014: Deadline for hospitals and CAHs to submit eCQMs.
• December 31, 2014: End of 2014 calendar year and end of the 2014 reporting period for eligible professionals
• February 28, 2015: Attestation deadline for Medicare eligible professionals.

For additional information, check out the EHR Incentives Programs website.