Law360, New York ( August 13, 2012, 1:05 PM EDT) -- As part of its effort to address physicians' discontent with overlapping Medicare incentive programs, and also to encourage electronic prescribing of medications and use of electronic health records, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently proposed two new significant hardship exemptions from the Medicare payment penalties under the Medicare Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program. This would allow physicians who are not successful electronic prescribers (EP) under the program to avoid the penalties by adopting certified electronic health record (EHR) technology and registering for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program, and/or by achieving meaningful use under the EHR Incentive Program....