What Do You Understand By Certified EMR

A certified EMR is the one that which is certified by a certifying body. The certification guidelines and criteria are handled by ONC (The Office of the National Coordinator). Currently there are 6 organizations recognized by ONC as ATCB (authorized testing and certification body) namely Drummond Group, InfoGard Laboratories, Inc., SLI Global Solutions, ICSA Labs, and Surescripts LLC.

The ONC’s mission involves many aspects of health information technology (HIT), including policy coordination, strategic planning for the adoption of health IT and health information exchanges (HIE), establishing governance for the Nationwide Health Information Network and, above all, promoting a national health IT infrastructure.

This last mission, according to the ONC, aims, among other things, to improve the quality of health care while reducing costs; improve the coordination of care and information among hospitals, labs, physicians and other health care organizations; ensure that personal health records (PHR) remain secure, and promote the early detection, prevention and management of chronic illness.

For the ONC to do its work, significant upgrades to health IT systems across the country will be necessary. To that end, and in response to provisions of the HITECH Act, the ONC drafted an interim final rule for an initial set of standards, implementation specifications and certification criteria for electronic health record (EHR) systems.

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, a part of ARRA passed in 2009, created "new incentive payment programs to help health providers as they transition from paper-based medical records to EMRs.  Incentive payments totaling as much as $27 billion may be made under the program.  Individual physicians and other eligible professionals can receive up to $44,000 through Medicare and almost $64,000 through Medicaid.  Hospitals can receive millions." (Aug. 30, 2010)

The HHS further explains that "to qualify for the incentive payments, providers must not only adopt, but also demonstrate meaningful use of certified EMR systems. Certifying bodies such as the ONC-ATCB ensure EMR users that their (EMR certified) software will support the specific tasks of Meaningful Use.