EHRs must deliver on promises or face ONC scrutiny

As physicians continue to maneuver through the electronic health record (EHR) maze, they'll soon start to see more oversight from Uncle Sam.

Following the recent final rule announcement that allows the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to bolster transparency and accountability and preserve patient health and safety through the ONC Health IT Certification Program, many physician groups expressed approval of the plan, but questions still remain on the full details of its reach.

 

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“What this rule says is the government needs to be the ultimate backstop here ... for example, if there's a risk to public health and safety ... for the government to act directly and immediately,” Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM, former National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, tells Medical Economics.

He provided the example of an EHR company receiving complaints for non-conformities in its system, and if those issues are not resolved, it could result in ONC taking regulatory action.

“If they had not fixed it, and if the certifying body had not taken action, that might be the kind of thing that ONC might take direct aim at, according to this rule,” he says.

 

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Although DirectTrust President and CEO David Kibbe, MD, MBA, sees those instances of an EHR vendor's products not aligning with certification criteria being “very few,” the end result could still be costly for physicians.

“Even if ONC does do the right thing in a particular case, that doesn't necessarily help the providers,” Kibbe explains. “Because if their product is de-certified, they've got to go get a new one anyways.”

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