EHR Certification Criteria Under Fire

Complaints rolling in to the ONC

The hits keep on coming as two industry groups spoke out against voluntary 2015 EHR certification under meaningful use. On Monday it was the EHR Association claiming the criteria are neither necessary nor workable. And on Tuesday the American Medical Association and Telecommunications Industry Association joined the cause.

In a letter to National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD the AMA said its constituents are concerned that the meaningful use program requirements are “overly rigid,” and that the certification process “is not focused on ensuring interoperable and usable systems.” According to AMA’s analysis of the most recent CMS data on meaningful use, approximately 20 percent of eligible professionals have dropped out of the program, “a figure we expect to rise once all the data for 2013 are tabulated.”

In addition, AMA officials say that poor EHR usability is partially due to a disconnect between development of the EHR and its use in the real world. More testing could remedy this, AMA said, including requiring vendors to perform scenario-based testing prior to certification...