Seventy-one percent of the electronic health records used by hospitals and professionals to attest to Meaningful Use have been certified by both the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) and the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), according to CCHIT.
Six organizations--Surescripts, ICSA Labs, SLI Global Solutions, InfoGard Laboratories, the Drummond Group and CCHIT--currently certify EHR products for ONC. Only CCHIT, however, certifies for functionality beyond what ONC requires for Meaningful Use and holds EHRs to a higher standard, Karen Bell, chair of CCHIT, tells FierceEMR.
"Dual certification is a real value-add," Bell explains. "ONC's certification will get you the incentive payment money. CCHIT's certification provides assurance that the EHR is an integrated package that supports workflow and has been tested and implemented by other providers."
There are about 1,500 HER vendors on ONC's list of vendors, but only 83 products have been dually certified by both ONC and CCHIT, she says.
Bell notes that providers still are very confused about which EHR system to purchase; choosing one that's dually certified narrows the choices down considerably. The fact that more than 70 percent of attesting providers--about 15,600 of them--use dually certified systems is significant, she says.
"Dual certification gives them a sense of assurance beyond the government floor. You'll get the money and be able to use the product," Bell says.
To learn more:
- read the CCHIT announcement
- here's a more detailed analysis from the chair of CCHIT