EHR Makers Surprised By Stage 2 Complexity

As the end of 2013 closes in, most federal certification bodies are noticing an uptick in the number of vendors who are applying to become certified under the 2014 criteria — the same criteria that will be required for the EHR products providers must use to attest to meaningful use Stage 2.

“It has been a slow start. They’re working hard. They’re struggling a little bit, said Alisa Ray, executive director and CEO of the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, CCHIT, adding that when comparing Stage 1 to Stage 2 certification, vendors are “navigating a higher bar and increased complexity.”

Ray said there are three areas of Stage 2 that are proving the most challenging for certification: clinical quality measures, interoperability, and automated measure calculation for reporting metrics.