The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) has been authorized to certify Electronic Health Records software through the permanent certification program. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) authorized CCHIT, along with four other organizations, to serve as certification bodies under the EHR incentive payment program.
The federal Permanent Certification Program for Health Information Technology becomes effective on October 4th and will officially be renamed the ONC HIT Certification Program. Under the new permanent program, organizations that intend to perform both EHR testing and EHR certification must receive authorization for each function separately and must maintain a “firewall” between those functions. According to CCHIT’s executive director, Alisa Ray, “While we must maintain a separation between testing and certification services even though we perform both, we believe our clients are best served when they choose to both test and certify in tandem programs.”
EHRs such as Lytec MD, Allscripts MyWay, and McKesson Practice Choice are all certified and all sold and supported by Microwize Technology.