Be wary of any vendor claiming that they are certified or promising they will be certified. Although some EHR vendors are better prepared to meet the certification when available, not a single vendor today is certified for the EHR incentive payment program. More importantly, you cannot meet the requirements of “meaningful use” by simply implementing a certified EHR. It is vital that you find experts who can provide accurate assessment and plan for “meaningful use”.

• Although the definition and requirement of a certified EHR has been released by the ONC, there is no organization recognized or approved by the CMS to certify EHR to meet the requirements of the meaningful use criteria.
• Even if your organization implements a certified EHR (when certification bodies are appointed and your EHR vendor passes the certification), this does not get you to meaningful use.
• Meeting meaningful use requirements involve qualified providers meaningfully using a certified EHR and reporting clinical quality measurements. The key words are “meaningfully using” and “reporting” not simply having a certified EHR.

If nothing else, it should at least be easy to register to receive federal incentive payments for meaningful use of EMRs.

CMS has awarded a $1.6 million contract to CGI Federal, a Fairfax, Va.-based unit of Montreal-based technology consulting firm CGI Group, to revise the existing Provider Enrollment Chain Ownership System (PECOS) so physicians and hospitals can attest to meeting the requirements for meaningful use that will qualify them for Medicare bonuses. PECOS currently manages and verifies enrollment of Medicare providers and vendors.

Build-out of the online system to accommodate EMR incentive enrollment should take about 10 months, CMS says. Hospitals, however, could be eligible for the bonuses as soon as the end of December, since the rules for meaningful use, as currently proposed, only require providers to meet the standards for 90 consecutive days in 2011. Medicare Part A, which applies to inpatient care, follows the federal fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.