The future of CCHIT
During the year of 2009, when the HITECH act allocated stimulus funds and assigned the responsibility for specifying the criteria for physicians to qualify for these funds, people in the Healthcare IT business have been wondering what would happen to CCHIT (The Certification Commission for Health IT) which is a non-profit consortium made up of among others the traditional large EMR vendors. If the government wanted to make HIT easier, cheaper and more effective, it could not just adopt the CCHIT methodology which hadn’t been very effective in promoting EMR adoption.
From the start, it was clear that the requirement for Meaningful Use would not fit neatly into the CCHIT requirements, so the relevance of the organization was in doubt. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)’s Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) on January 13, 2010 made it clear that the government wanted to be vendor neutral in its requirements. Thus, CCHIT had to do something to play a role in this new development in the EHR marketplace.
This article from InformationWeek reports the first steps being taken by CCHIT since the January 13 rules (which were actually released on Dec 30, 2009). Basically they have introduced a scaled down version of their “Comprehensive” certification program called the “Modular” program. They also offer to certify for ARRA stimulus those vendors who have already spent a huge amount of money to pass their Comprehensive program. Of course, such certification program does not really exist yet because the rules for certification have not yet been finalized.
To make this situation even more interesting is the perspective from Practice Fusion. You probably already realize that nobody speaks without self-interest in this muddy puddle we call Healthcare IT. As an upstart in the EMR/EHR space, Practice Fusion obviously enjoys watching the established vendors in the CCHIT organization squirm. The fact that the National Institute of Standards and Technology has contracted with Booz Allen Hamilton to develop testing methods and process of certification of EHR will keep the squirming going a while longer.
The whole entire HITECH act is just a mess. Meaningful use is so weakly defined and EHR certification is useless. It’s really unfortunate that the EMR stimulus money was shoddily put together with the other ARRA stimulus. I will give the government credit for rendering CCHIT even more useless than it was. Granted, they’re still kicking and screaming, but I predict that won’t last too much longer. The word is getting out. Mark Leavitt was very smart to “retire” when he did.
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You maybe right John that CCHIT will fade away but they do have a head start and the resources to toss around to continue as a significant player in certifying EHR. I don’t think it is healthy to have a single certifying body, so I too like that how the environment is changing.
I am not sure I agree entirely the Meaningful Use criteria are meaningless and useless. The world of EHR is stuck at a very low local maximum. Cost is too high, usability is low are just two of the issues that many have raised. This sounds so much like the old enterprise software (ERP) “reengineering” days 20 years ago. I am gratified to see some of the newer solutions that are changing the game. Meaningful Use requirements may just give innovators a shot in the arm so patients and physicians ultimately benefit.