The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has named InfoGard Laboratories, Inc., of San Luis Obispo, Calif., as an ONC-Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ONC-ATCB).
The addition of InfoGard Laboratories provides a third option for EHR vendors to have their products tested and certified for compliance with the standards and certification criteria that were issued by the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this year.
Certification of EHRs is part of a broad initiative under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.
The HITECH Act provides incentive payments totaling as much as $27 billion. Individual physicians and other eligible professionals can receive up to $44,000 through Medicare and almost $64,000 through Medicaid. Hospitals can receive millions.
To qualify for the incentive payments offered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, providers must not only adopt, but also demonstrate the meaningful use of certified EHR systems.
ONC authorized the first two ONC-ATCBs in late August, 2010 - the Commission for Healthcare Information Technology and the Drummond Group. Additional applications are under review.
