If Im a non-covered entity, am I forever stuck with snail mail, faxes, phone calls, and stacks of paper?
No, you can always become a covered entity. Perhaps later the regulations will be rescinded, clarified, simplified, or at least truly finalized – and the record of the Office of Civil Rights regarding reasonableness of enforcement will be known. If the industry as a whole continues its policy of going along to get along, don’t expect much improvement. But if, by becoming non-covered, physicians demonstrate – in a way that Congress can understand – that compliance is unworkable and wrong, regulatory and preferably statutory relief is more likely. Better to suffer with horse-and-buggy technology for a few more years than to be forever stuck with a Yugo.
