We recently saw the release of the 732 pages of the CMS Stage 3 Meaningful Use Proposed Rule and ONC’s Proposed Rule on 2015 Edition Certification. The EHRA Meaningful Use and Certification Workgroups have been gearing up to review and comment on these rules for a while so we have already started looking at the eight proposed objectives and 68 proposed certification criteria.

The scope of what is proposed for certification in this NPRM goes beyond what is proposed to be part of the Meaningful Use program, so other EHRA workgroups are also focused on reviewing the material pertinent to their areas of expertise.  We’re committed to detailed review and developing EHRA’s responses for submission by the May 29^th deadline.

Our work depends on the deep expertise of EHRA members and their users!  We strongly encourage your involvement. You’ll have the opportunity to learn from the insights of industry experts in our educational calls, discussions, and consensus based positioning. Participating in EHRA’s work will give you an advantage when working on your own company’s feedback.  Also, you’ll be well positioned to engage your users in what the new proposals might mean for their practices and to encourage them to participate in the public comment process.

EHRA workgroups will evaluate whether the proposals focus on features that add value for EHR users, integrate well in clinical workflows, and promote our key priority goals of interoperability and coordinated quality measurement.

With our development expertise, we are also well positioned to assess whether there is sufficient time to develop, test, and implement new and revised functionality.  As we have in the past, we’ll work with our members will estimate the time required to design, develop, test, and certify new features.  And we’ll work with other industry partners and stakeholder organizations to learn from one another and identify opportunities for alignment.

We hope we’ve convinced you to join our efforts!  Please contact EHRA’s program manager, Angie Gorden (agorden@himss.org), if you want to get involved with or provide input to our workgroups’ efforts to shape the direction of MU Stage 3 and future EHR certification.

                                                       Sasha TerMaat (Epic), Chair, Meaningful Use Workgroup

                                                       Rick Reeves (CPSI), Chair, Certification Workgroup