Certification groups say vendors stumped by MU2

Executives with federal certification bodies told Healthcare IT News that many vendors are struggling with the requirements of making their electronic health record (EHR) products ready for meaningful use stage 2 (MU).

Healthcare IT News spoke with officials from the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) who said that the increased complexity is making certification under the 2014 criteria slow going.

The three areas of MU2 that are most challenging for vendors are achieving certification for clinical quality measures, interoperability, and automated measure calculation for reporting metrics.

“It has been a slow start,” Alisa Ray, executive director and chief executive officer of CCHIT, told the news service. “They’re working hard. They’re struggling a little bit.”

Ray told the news service that about 22% of products that achieved 2011 certification have completed 2014 certification.

The report states that vendors may be experiencing “certification fatigue” and acknowledged that the requirements for MU2 are a “significant step up” from MU1.

Still, certification board officials say they are seeing an uptick in vendors applying for 2014 certification and expect many more applications to come in before the end of the year.