Vendors can apply for 'modular' EHR certification Oct. 7
By Mary Mosquera
Friday, September 04, 2009
The Certification Commission for Health IT will release on Sept. 24 the details of its plan to offer a streamlined option for electronic health records certification, a move designed to keep providers out in front of a fast-approaching window for receiving incentive payments under the stimulus plan.
In a web conference yesterday, CCHIT chairman Mark Leavitt said CCHIT would begin accepting applications on Oct. 7 from vendors for "modular" or limited certification. Under the plan, vendors could apply for certification for distinct EHR modules, such as e-prescribing or electronic patient registries.
The plan would certify the systems as capable of performing at a level of "meaningful use," benchmarks that providers must meet in order to begin receiving Medicare incentive payments as early as 2011 for incorporating EHRs in their practices.
But there's a small catch: The Office of the National Coordinator is not expected to finalize meaningful use standards until next Spring. That means vendors who certify their EHRs this fall take a gamble that changes in the final meaningful use rules will require them to update certifications in the Spring.
On the other hand waiting until the Spring to begin certification might put their customers further behind the planning curve for receiving 2011 incentive payments.
"Choose the risk you want to take," he told an audience of 660 vendors and developers. "Go ahead now and have an extra year to implement, with a small risk that there will be some gap in which EHR systems would have to be updated to receive final certification."
Leavitt said he anticipates that the final meaningful use requirements will be the same or less stringent than the current set of recommendations by the ONC's Health IT Policy Committee. If not, CCHIT will offer "gap testing" to update the standards and capabilities that are different.
Healthcare practices that sought 2011 incentives for EHR components, such as electronic prescribing or computerized physician order entry systems, would receive "preliminary ARRA 2011 certification," Leavitt said.
CCHIT will continue to offer comprehensive certification for full-featured, integrated EHR systems as well as for EHR modules. Either way, certification will not be cheap.
Prices for 2011 certification will start at $6,000 for up to two modules and rise to $24,000 for up to 20 and $33,000 for more than 20 components. Fees for certification of comprehensive systems are $37,000 for physicians' offices and $49,000 for hospital systems. Certification typically takes 90 days.
Of the participants in the briefing who identified themselves as vendors, 70 indicated in an informal survey that they plan to seek the modular certification in October and 60 would purse standard certification, Leavitt said.
HHS is expected to publish the meaningful use rule for public comment in December. When the rule is final in 2010, software that received preliminary 2011 certification will receive final certification through Dec. 31, 2012.
