Comments on: Should CCHIT Influence Your EHR Selection?

By: Soraya Hareez

Soraya Hareez — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:50:45 +0000

Don,

Thank you for such a thorough, informative article. Being an EMR vendor, we at Valant Medical Solutions are often asked whether we plan to gain CCHIT certification in light of the upcoming Stimulus Bill certification requirements.

I think an important point for health care providers to understand that while CCHIT has been the main certifying body thus far, there is no guarantee that it will be among the certifying organizations selected by the government later this year. Therefore, it is possible that a previously CCHIT-certified EMR/EHR may not meet all Stimulus Bill criteria and will require additional certification. Many EMR/EHR vendors are awaiting the release of government standards before jumping on the certification boat for this reason.

By: HD

HD — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:58:09 +0000

EMR should be paid for by Medicare/Providers. They are the only users of this information. Doctors don’t need it to care for patients.

‘Pay for Performance” incentives are straight out of old-school circus training: an animal that is starving can be coaxed into jumping through more, and higher hoops for smaller rewards…

By: Jose enrique enciso duran

Jose enrique enciso duran — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:03:57 +0000

we are taking the option 100% opensource over vmware platform.I decide work with openemr from sourgeforce and he say have a great advance in cchit certification but you point the problem clear.This option dont can pay high fees for to be free.Can you say me if they dont can pay to you for tobe here?And to be a good solution anyway for a lot of doctors.Can you answer me?

By: Brian Van Zandt

Brian Van Zandt — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:38:20 +0000

Great Article Don! Lots of good information. I just wanted to point out something that has changed since the article was written. CCHIT has unveiled three certification approaches to replace the current single one.
- EHR-C, or EHR Comprehensive:

- EHR-M, or EHR Module:

- EHR-S, or EHR Site:

see full article on the CCHIT website – CCHIT makes EHR more accessible: http://www.cchit.org/media/news/2009/06/certification-commission-makes-ehr-certification-more-accessible

By: Dr. Brian

Dr. Brian — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:50:03 +0000

One of the big draws doctors is the $40,000+ stimulus money they will get when they buy these systems. What most docs do not realize is the money only comes to you in the form of higher medicare reimbursement if you can prove “meaningful use” of a CCHIT system. The definition of “meaningful use” is not defined yet. For some doctors like chiropractors, it might be imposable to ever reach the “meaningful use” threshold. For example one of the required features of a CCHIT system is that it must support e prescriptions. Chiropractors do not prescribe drugs and therefore might never use a system “meaningfully”, and in turn not qualify for stimulus money. There are many other features that are like this.
In addition, there are no members of the review board that are chiropractors and so it is unlikely they will ever consider the unique requirements that a chiropractic practice may or may not need.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:23:25 +0000

There are both positive and negatives of what CCHIT is doing. Consider the negative impact of CCHIT requirements on the practice of medicine. Example drug to drug interaction checking – in CCHIT requirements there is no identification of what level of interaction is to be recorded (who determines this?). Many physicians turn off low levels of drug interaction checking because of all the “noise” it creates. How are these requirements going to “improve” the process of healthcare?

By: John Lewis

John Lewis — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:46:39 +0000

Don:

You have written a very good article and try to offer a non-biased approached. However, the most important facet for any provider when purchasing an EHR is that it be usable for their specialty. If that requirement is not met, than nothing else matters. Without measuring this, CCHIT fails to be of value to such specialties. Unfortunately, CCHIT vendors use their certification to persuade doctors towards their products. And at higher costs than as you menton, specialty EHR vendors. Then you have doctors that have paid many thousands of dollars for and CCHIT certified EHR that did not work and it ends up being a detriment for them in future purchases . . . and leaves the doctor gun shy and in many cases, angry because they felt mislead. This is happening across the country and is a serious issue. Again, without usability for the doctor, the EHR is just an expensive mistake!

By: pooja

pooja — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 08:43:19 +0000

Very Good Article

By: EMRs & The Certification Commission for Healthcare IT (CCHIT) « The Healthcare Marketer

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:56:18 +0000

[...] found the article at http://www.softwareadvice.com to be extremely helpful. Click here to go directly to the article. The piece is titled [...]

By: Understanding CCHIT and the Role It Plays in Your EMR or EHR Purchase | Manage My Practice.com

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:28:58 +0000

[...] pass it along to my readers. To answer the question “What is CCHIT?”, the site SoftwareAdvice says this: CCHIT is a private, non-profit organization formed to certify EHRs against a minimum set [...]