Physicians and other so-called eligible professionals still wanting to appeal their eligibility determinations for the 2011 Medicare electronic health-record incentive payment program will have an extra month to file those appeals, the CMS announced.

The new deadline is April 30.

The eligibility period for the first round, or Stage 1, of the program, in which providers needed to attest to having met 90 consecutive days of meaningful use of an EHR, began Jan. 1, 2011, and ended December 31, 2011. Appeals allow providers an opportunity to show they have met all the requirements for the incentive payment program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, according to the CMS.

Guidance on the appeals process is available on the CMS' website.