Radiology and HIT Blog

Earlier today, the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for HIT (ONC) announced new guidance on “hybrid” inpatient and ambulatory certification criteria, as well as an update (Version 2.1) to the Certified HIT Product List (CHPL) web application.  ONC regulates the technology requirements of the EHR Incentive Program, including the HIT certification criteria, standards, and implementation specifications, as well as the product testing/certification process.

ONC’s new FAQ (6-12-025-1) identifies five Inpatient certification criteria that are the same or more comprehensive than the related Ambulatory certification criteria, and can therefore serve as substitute criteria in Eligible Professional (EP)-appropriate certified EHR technology.  This is a significant departure from the previous paradigm in which the Inpatient criteria were applicable only to Eligible Hospital (EH)-appropriate products.

EPs who use this option will still need to have technology certified for the other (nonequivalent) Ambulatory criteria; a fact which severely limits the usefulness of this new flexibility.  This guidance is marginally useful to vendors of products that are being submitted for testing/certification for use in both versions of the program, as there are now five fewer Ambulatory criteria that need to be tested/certified to achieve the goal.

The announced update to the CHPL web app will go live tomorrow, June 26.  Version 2.1 will feature improved cart, navigation, and search functionality.