Morton County Health System, located in Elkhart, Kansas, became the first hospital in the state to receive stimulus funds under the Medicare EHR Incentive Program. The hospital recently received more than $1.4 million under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services program, which provides incentive payments to eligible professionals/hospitals and critical-access facilities that demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology. Read »

We knew that the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) and the Drummond Group would not be the only two Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies (ONC-ATCBs), which were named by ONC at the end of August. Read »

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT announced that it has authorized the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology and the Drummond Group to certify EHR products to qualify for the federal incentives for meaningful use of EHRs. Read »

The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) has added three certification programs for EHRs. This is good news. Adding more specialties, namely, behavior health, dermatology and long-term and post-acute care, will help drive EHR adoption across provider groups and spread the benefits of EHRs to a greater number of patients. Read »

I have not read the report by the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University that demonstrates EHRs in some cases can impose higher costs to hospitals and lower quality of care. That said, I have some concerns about the study. Read »

With some standards being dropped and others being added, the Interim Final Rule (IFR) for EHR standards and certification is not aligned with CCHIT's current certification process. If the Final Rule is largely unchanged from the IFR, CCHIT says the new process could slow down the EHR adoption rate. Read »

For the most part, the American Academy of Family Physicians, an advocate for health IT, supports the meaningful use criteria that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released at the end of last year. They have an issue, however, with the reporting requirements of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. Read »

Aside from the upfront cost of implementing electronic health records (EHRs), one of the major barriers for adopting health IT cited by physicians is a lack of standards. On Friday, HL7 published a standard for clinical research in an EHR system. Read »

The Drummond Group's announcement that it will submit to become a certification body for electronic health records (EHRs) when the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) opens up the pool in early 2010 is good news for the industry. Read »

In his speech to congress on Wednesday, President Obama made no specific mention of EHRs, or even health information technology for that matter. He did, however, mention Canada, which received immediate applause from the audience. Though Obama was referring to the Maple Leaf's single-payer system, there are also notable differences between the two countries' EHR adoption strategies. With a population 10 times as large, and the most complex healthcare system in the world, the United States presents a unique technology challenge. But perhaps we can still benefit from some "lessons learned" by our neighbors to the North. Read »