ANSI accredits five organizations for ONC's certification program

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), selected in 2011 by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) to act as the approved accreditor for the ONC certification program, recently announced the first five accredited organizations.

They are:

• Certification Commission for Health IT;
• Drummond Group;   
• ICSA Laboratories; 
• InfoGard Laboratories; and
• Orion Register.  

A January 2011 final rule published by the ONC paved the way for ANSI to become the approved accreditor for the ONC’s permanent certification program, which provides organizations with authorization to certify EHRs that qualify for the “meaningful use” program.

ANSI is still collecting applications from organizations interested in accreditation for the permanent certification program, which is expected to supplant the temporary certification program in 2014.