EMR Certification
The Medicare and Medicaid Health IT provisions in the Recovery Act provide incentives and support for the adoption of certified electronic health records (EHRs). The Recovery Act authorizes bonus payments for eligible professionals and hospitals participating in Medicare or Medicaid if they become meaningful users of certified EHRs. These bonus payments will help lessen the financial burden for many healthcare providers to adopt this technology. These bonus payments will be awarded to certified “meaningful users” of EMRs.
CCHIT has acted as the established certifying body for EHR technologies until now. Due to controversy and lack of transparency in the certification process, CCHIT will no longer create the certification criteria for the Recovery Act incentives. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and other government entities will now be in charge of establishing certification criteria, based on meaningful use objectives. These objectives are to be released by the federal government in December 2009.
Although the federal government’s certification standards continue to evolve, WebDMEMR remains committed to complying with current and future standards of service and functionality required by the HITECH Act. WebDMEMR is currently working towards certification and will continue to make necessary changes to comply with meaningful use requirements as they evolve.
