The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is now accepting hardship exceptions from the Medicare Quality Payment Program (QPP) for the 2019 reporting year.

Physicians and groups that qualify for the QPP’s Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) can submit a hardship exception application for one of the following reasons:

• Promoting Interoperability Hardship Exception: Certified electronic health record technology is required for participation in the Promoting Interoperability performance category. Under MIPS, you may qualify for a re-weighting of the Promoting Interoperability performance category (to 0%) if you meet certain criteria.
• Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances Exception: MIPS eligible clinicians identified as affected by the automatic extreme and uncontrollable policy will have all four performance categories re-weighted to 0% of their final score unless they submit data for two or more performance categories.

Hardship exception applications can be submitted via the QPP website. You can also contact the QPP Service Center at (866) 288-8292 or QPP@cms.hhs.gov and work with a representative to submit an application.

Once an application is submitted, you will receive a confirmation email that your application was received and is pending, approved or dismissed. Applications will be processed on a rolling basis.

For more information about QPP, visit CMA’s MACRA resource page.