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HHS Releases Final Rule for Electronic Health Record Temporary Certification Program

Stimulus Certification Program to Push Meaningful Use EHRs

June 18, 2010

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has released a final ruling on their temporary certification program for Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, better known as the stimulus bill, ONC has been tasked with certifying EHR technology.

ONC's certification program follows announcements that the previous administration's certification through the government funded Certification Commission for Health IT (CCHIT) would not be sufficient for the stimulus requirements. Under the stimulus law, medical providers and hospitals will receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement bonuses for demonstrating meaningful use of certified EHR technology. The law required that ONC determine what meaningful use is, by the end of 2009.

ONC did release an Interim Final Ruling (IFR) on December 30th, 2009, defining meaningful use. However, they modified it two weeks later, and didn't fully define how providers could demonstrate meaningful use, nor did they define what certified technology was. On January 13th, 2010, ONC released a proposal on how physicians could demonstrate meaningful use and receive the Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments, but the Notice of Proposed Rule Making was not final. They added another NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rulemaking) for certification programs - establishing a temporary and permanent certification program for EHR technology - on March 10th.

Today's ONC announcement followed months of speculation as to the timing of the next announcement. The expectation of an early May finalization of the certification ruling went by without comment. This announcement finalizes the temporary program, which will be in place until at least 2012.

Many EHR vendors had been concerned the delay in the establishment of the certification criteria, the certifying bodies, and the certification process was going to negatively impact sales. Physician practices and hospitals had been preparing for a January 2011 date, and delays in certification were delaying decisions. Today's announcement is expected to help speed that purchasing process again.

ONC still has not finalized several stimulus requirements, including finalization of several remaining NPRMs, most significantly the CMS Incentive NPRM.

The Temporary Certification Program Final Rule has established the requirements for ONC Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies (ONC-ATCB), which will test against the test scripts that another government agency - the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) - has created for certification. Those test scripts will determine EHR software's ability to meet the meaningful use criteria, including the ability to demonstrate patient record security and privacy, as well as the ability to send the reports to HHS to demonstrate medical provider's compliance with meaningful use.

CCHIT has previously announced their intentions to become an ONC-ATCB, as have several other organizations such as the Drummond Group.

Visit the ONC Certification Site:
http://healthit.hhs.gov/certification
HHS

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About ChartLogic, Inc.

Electronic Health Records...Better Patient Care since 1994. ChartLogic has helped thousands of practices make the transition from paper to digital medical offices. Guaranteed to meet "meaningful use" requirements, ChartLogic offers two comprehensive electronic health record suites that include electronic medical records, superior medical billing software, document management, and interactive patient education. ChartLogic helps physicians provide better patient care through better technology. For further information, visit www.chartlogic.com.

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