ONC to prolong temporary certification program for health IT til 2012
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) has issued a notice of extension for the temporary certification program for health IT.
The temporary certification program, established in June 2010, was a sunset law to ensure that certified EHR technology was available for adoption and use by eligible professionals and hospitals as well as critical access hospitals for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.
The temporary program is to sunset on Dec. 31. However, according to ONC’s notice in the Nov. 3 Federal Register, the agency does not anticipate that there will be a sufficient number of accredited testing laboratories or ONC-Authorized Certication Bodies (ONC-ACBs) until summer 2012.
“We believe that the sunset of the temporary certification program should be tied to the effective date of the final rule that we intend to issue in summer 2012, which is expected to adopt new and revised standards, implementation specification and certification criteria for EHR technology in support of the next stage of meaningful use under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs,” the notice stated. “We believe aligning the sunset of the temporary certification program with the effective date of this forthcoming final rule would provide certainty to healthcare providers, EHR technology developers and other stakeholders, while also ensuring a sufficient number of accredited testing laboratories and ONC-ACBs exist to meet market demand.”
The temporary certification program, established in June 2010, was a sunset law to ensure that certified EHR technology was available for adoption and use by eligible professionals and hospitals as well as critical access hospitals for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.
The temporary program is to sunset on Dec. 31. However, according to ONC’s notice in the Nov. 3 Federal Register, the agency does not anticipate that there will be a sufficient number of accredited testing laboratories or ONC-Authorized Certication Bodies (ONC-ACBs) until summer 2012.
“We believe that the sunset of the temporary certification program should be tied to the effective date of the final rule that we intend to issue in summer 2012, which is expected to adopt new and revised standards, implementation specification and certification criteria for EHR technology in support of the next stage of meaningful use under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs,” the notice stated. “We believe aligning the sunset of the temporary certification program with the effective date of this forthcoming final rule would provide certainty to healthcare providers, EHR technology developers and other stakeholders, while also ensuring a sufficient number of accredited testing laboratories and ONC-ACBs exist to meet market demand.”