Billing / Fees / Insurance

CCHIT Begins Certifying EHR Software for Meaningful Use

SuiteMed first chiropractic system to be fully certified.
Editorial Staff

After months of speculation, commentary and debate regarding whether chiropractors would be able to qualify for meaningful use incentives from Medicare for appropriate use of electronic health records, the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) has provided us with a definitive answer. When the commission, which was named an official certifying body by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in August, posted a list of the first EHR software systems to receive full certification - meaning the system is fully certified to allow users to meet meaningful use criteria under the commission's new ONC-ATCB program - SuiteMed IMS was on the list. CCCHIT posted the list on Oct. 1, 2010.

"We felt achieving the 2011 CCHIT certification for our EHR solution not only reflected our guaranteed commitment towards our customers' need to meet meaningful use incentives, but also validated unique features and exceptional development we achieved in our version 14 SuiteMed IMS EHR," said Mark Kozak, vice president of business development for SuiteMed, LLC. SuiteMed IMS has been certified by CCHIT since 2008 [although not ONC-ATCB certified until now, of course] and has been an advocate of EHR adoption for over 12 years with a dedication to providing easy-to-use solutions tailored to 24 different specialties."

Electronic health records systems that receive full ONC-ATCB certification from a certified testing body (currently there are two: CCHIT and Drummond Group, Inc.) meet the 2011-2012 certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Those criteria support the stage 1 meaningful use measures required to qualify eligible providers and hospitals for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

As discussed in this publicationon numerous occasions over the past several years, health care providers who are able to show meaningful use of those criteria with a fully certified EHR system are eligible to receive up to $44,000 in incentive money, with the exact amount received dependent on the amount of submitted allowed Medicare charges.

For the most current listing of EHR products certified by CCHIT under the ONC-ATCB program, visit www.cchit.org/products/onc-atcb.

November 2010
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