CMS seeks feedback on certification of EHRs used for quality reporting

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last week published a Request for Information related to certification of health information technology, including electronic health record products used for reporting to CMS quality programs such as the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program and Physician Quality Reporting System. Areas of interest include how often to require recertification, the number of clinical quality measures to which a certified health IT module should be certified, and ways to improve testing of certified health IT modules. Kate Goodrich, M.D., director of CMS’s Center for Clinical Standards & Quality, said the RFI will provide CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT “with an opportunity to assess policy options that could improve the effectiveness of the certification of health IT and specifically the certification and testing of EHR products used for the reporting of quality measures.” The deadline for submitting comments to CMS is Feb. 1.