ONC expects multiple temporary certifiers of EHRs

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health expects that there will likely be multiple organizations to test and verify electronic health record products for the temporary certification program, leading to a faster, more open and more competitive process. 

So far, ONC has received six or seven completed applications out of the 30 it sent to organizations that have requested them since July 1, said Dr. David Blumenthal, the national health IT coordinator, at a meeting of the advisory Health IT Policy Committee.  

ONC released in June its final rule for the temporary certification program, which lays out steps organizations must take to be authorized by ONC to both test and certify that EHRs can perform the functions required for meaningful use. 

“We are optimistic that we will have a new landscape in the certification realm in which, instead of having a single certification body, there will be more opportunity, a broader pipeline for certification, hopefully more price competition and shorter waiting times to get certification,” Blumenthal said at the committee meeting July 21.

With multiple certification organizations, ONC hopes to understand what kinds of processes work best, he added.

The temporary program is designed to enable IT vendors have their products and services approved in time for providers to meet imminent 2011 deadlines for demonstrating the first stage of meaningful use requirements in order to qualify for incentive payments under the HITECH Act.

Without providing specific details, ONC has said that it expects authorized organizations to begin testing and certifying EHRs in late summer, and that vendors can have certified products on the market in the fall.

Also in the fall, ONC expects to release the final rule on the permanent process, which will take about a year to get up and running to replace the temporary certification process, Blumenthal said. In that more formal process, separate organizations will do testing and certification.

With the recent release of the final rules for meaningful use and standards and certification of EHRs, ONC has moved to implementation mode, Blumenthal said. ONC has also launched grant programs to assist providers to reach meaningful use, such as regional health IT extension centers, model “beacon” communities and state health information exchanges.

 “Though we have just started work on the actual implementation of the first stage of meaningful use, we’re already starting to think about the next stage,” he said. “We’re not about to change the rules within nanoseconds of having released the first set of rules.”

But over the next several months, ONC and its advisory committees will consider broad future directions of where meaningful use should be in two years, develop fully the goals that were hinted at in the first stage and analyze lessons learned in the first go-around, Blumenthal said.