Get Certified

CCHIT's IFR Stage 1 Certification Programs  

(Update Note: We have reviewed the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding certifying bodies, and we feel confident about our prospects of becoming accredited.  We plan to file an application with the Office of the National Coordinator as soon as it is ready to accept them.)

The Commission"s CCHIT Certified® Comprehensive certification program and its more limited Modular cerification program have been compared with the Interim Final Rule (IFR) issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on January 13, 2010, effective February 12, 2010.

We have analyzed the gaps between 2011 criteria and the Stage 1 IFR. More details on those gaps can be found in the following documents:

 The CCHIT Certified® Comprehensive certification program includes a rigorous inspection of integrated EHR functionality, interoperability, and security in addition to requiring full compliance with HHS criteria and standards supporting the meaningful use objectives required to qualify for incentives under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).  As part of the process,  successful use is verified at live sites and, for Ambulatory EHRs, product usability is rated.  Products must be fully compliant with both sets of criteria.   

The Modular IFR program is limited to a modular inspection of applicable  HHS criteria and standards to support the IFR Stage 1 incentives under ARRA.  EHR technology may meet all or just some of the requirements. Integration of the modules to support meaningful use is the responsibility of the healthcare provider applying for ARRA incentives. A new labeling system, Certification Facts, describes which meaningful use objectives are supported by the technology.

We will continue to update our certification materials and test tools to accommodate emerging HHS changes. We expect changes will finalized in late spring  2010. Our program staff is committed to working directly with certification applicants during this transition to ensure they have the information they need to prepare for certification.