Proposed Rule Addresses Corrective Action
in EHR Certification Program
The Office of the National Coordinator
for Health IT has proposed changes
to the permanent EHR certification
program that add provisions for addressing substandard performance or
misconduct by the ONC-Approved Accreditor, or ONC-AA.
The permanent certification program,
which in its current, temporary form
features numerous testing and certifying organizations, will name a sole
accreditation body to accredit groups
seeking to be an ONC-authorized certification body.
When originally passed, the final rule
that created the ONC-AA failed to in-
clude a mechanism that allows ONC to
take corrective action against the ONC-
AA should it feel the need to do so. The
proposed rule, published in May, would
establish a “process for addressing in-
stances where the ONC-AA engages in
improper conduct or does not perform
its responsibilities under the perma-
nent certification program.”
Misconduct could include “false,
fraudulent or abusive activities” either
performed by or affecting the perma-
nent accreditation body. Disciplinary
action could be taken by ONC against
the ONC-AA, which includes suspen-
sion or complete removal of the or-
ganization. The responsibilities of the
ONC-AA are also spelled out in the
clarification rule.
The ONC-AA is set to launch in 2011.
Currently several joint temporary ac-
creditation and certification bodies are
evaluating EHR products to determine
if they allow providers to meet the fed-
eral EHR meaningful use requirements.
The creation of the ONC-AA puts ac-
creditation under one body, while cer-
tification of the EHR will potentially be
operated by multiple organizations.
In addition, in June ONC named the
American National Standards Institute
as the designated accreditor for organizations that certify EHR systems under
the permanent health IT certification
program. ANSI will serve a three-year
term and could be re-selected after a
competitive selection process.
The proposed rule is available at
www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRDa-
ta/2011-13372_PI.pdf. ¢
MOBILE FEATURES FOR PHRS
www.microsoft.com/en-us/healthvault/
Microsoft has added mobile capabilities to HealthVault. HealthVault users
now can immediately see their health
information on their mobile devices.
Microsoft also is working to improve
the “reconciliation process,” which involves incorporating visit summaries,
medication and allergy lists, and other
information into the PHR.
QUERY TOOL
www.wolterskluwerhealth.com
Wolters Kluwer Health released a query
tool that streamlines the collection of
quality data for the GI Quality Improvement Consortium Ltd. (GIQuIC) benchmarking initiative. The tool is part of
ProVation MD for gastroenterology (GI)
procedure documentation and coding
and allows for easy collection of data
in an approved format that can then be
submitted to GIQuIC.
CCHIT Adds New EHR Certifications
In May the Certification Commission
for Health Information Technology
launched EHR certification programs
in women’s health (obstetrics), oncology, and clinical research. The new programs are the latest clinical domains
added to CCHIT’s independently developed ambulatory EHR programs.
“These newest certifications, designed to satisfy special medical or
practice requirements, are part of our
comprehensive CCHIT Certified program, which goes beyond the federal
EHR certification criteria in order to
meet clinicians’ long-term needs for
integrated functionality, interoperability
and security,” said CCHIT chair Karen
M. Bell, MD, MMS, in a press release.
CCHIT also offers special EHR certification programs for cardiovascular
medicine, child health, emergency departments, behavioral health, dermatology, and long-term and post-acute
care.
CCHIT is an ONC-authorized testing and certification body (ONC-ATCB)
that offers certification that meets the
minimum federal criteria for meaningful use. Most CCHIT-certified products
are also certified under the ONC-ATCB
2011/2012 program.
Criteria and test scripts for the
new programs are available at www.
cchit.org/certify/2011/cchit-certified-
2011-ambulatory-ehr. CCHIT began
accepting applications on June 2. ¢
REVENUE CYCLE TOOLS
www.huronconsultinggroup.com
The Huron Consulting Group released
the RevenueAscent solution, which
helps healthcare providers improve
revenue cycle management. The new
solution is part of the Huron Healthcare
platform and is designed to synchro-
nize hundreds of process steps span-
ning multiple departments and enhance
existing client revenue cycle tools to
provide end-to-end workflow manage-
ment and comprehensive performance
insight.
ICD-10-PCS ROOT OPERATIONS
www.ahimastore.org
AHIMA’s Root Operations: Key to Pro-
cedure Coding in ICD-10-PCS offers
coding professionals and students the
tools to differentiate and contrast pro-
cedures coded in ICD-9-CM with those
coded in ICD-10-PCS. The text offers
tools and strategies that address all
sections of ICD-10-PCS, provide de-
tailed explanations of all root opera-
tions, offer a snapshot of anatomy and
physiology for ICD-10-PCS, and define
and illustrate code structure for each
section. ¢
