Open-source advocates praise CCHIT?s changes

On balance, it would appear that members of the open-source healthcare software community are satisfied with the proposed changes in the way electronic health records systems will be tested and certified by the federally supported Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology.

Earlier this month, CCHIT announced it was adding two new testing and certification regimes to meet what CCHIT Chairman Mark Leavitt called an anticipated “stampede” toward EHR adoption, triggered by an estimated $34 billion in Medicare and Medicaid subsidy payments under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. In both new schemes, CCHIT said it would test and certify that EHR systems effectively meet the “meaningful use” standards now under development by HHS instead of just CCHIT’s own long list of discrete EHR functions used exclusively in the three previous rounds of CCHIT testing up to this point.

The stimulus law requires providers to not only use “certified” EHR systems, but also to use them in a “meaningful manner.” The CMS, which will oversee the official rulemaking process for HHS in determining “meaningful use,” is expected to have an initial set of standards ready for publication early next year.

The changes to the certification process also seem to align with requests made of CCHIT by open-source advocates to make its testing and certification process more amenable to the peculiarities of open source development, according to four open-source mavens contacted for this story. More Here EMR