The ONC released a proposed rule to update its criteria for health IT certification to make it more open to more types of technology.
The 2015 edition also proposes to establish the capabilities and specify related standards and implementation specifications for certified EHR technology under the meaningful use requirements. The new proposal was released alongside CMS's proposed rulemaking for meaningful use stage 3.
The ONC is accepting public comments on the rule until Friday May 29, 2015.
Here are five things to know about the proposed rule.
1. The CEHRT definition will be removed from the Health IT Certification criteria. Instead, it will reside in the EHR incentive program regulations to support EHR-specific programs. Under this proposal, the health IT certification program applies to all health IT, not just EHRs.
2. The Common Clinical Data Set would replace the Common MU Dataset. The new data set includes additional categories, including patient name, sex, date of birth, race, ethnicity, preferred language, smoking status, problems, medications, medication allergies, lab tests, lab values and results, vital signs, care plan fields, procedures, care team members, immunizations, patient's implantable device unique device ID, assessment and plan of treatment, goals and health concerns.
3. The rules of conduct for ONC-Authorized Certification Bodies will be redefined. The ACBs must now provide meaningful disclosure of certain types of costs and limitations of certified health IT implementations, extend record keeping consistent with industry standards, record certified health IT adaptation and updates more closely, report complaints received on certified health IT and scrutinize "in-the-field" surveillance more closely. The ONC is also requesting public comment on the potential process of decertifying health IT products.
4. Provider groups are no longer responsible for the privacy and security criteria certification. Instead, the new rules shift the responsibility to health IT developers.
5. The new requirements drop the requirement to import, calculate and report clinical quality measurement data. However, the requirements to record and export CQM data remain.