ANSI to continue as ONC's accreditor of EHR certification bodies

The American National Standards Institute has received another three-year appointment to run the accreditation program for certification bodies under the federal electronic health record incentive-payment program, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS announced.

Under the EHR incentive-payment program, the 96-year-old, not-for-profit ANSI, with offices in New York and Washington, will officially act as the ONC-Approved Accreditor. It was first appointed by the ONC to that position in June 2011.

ANSI's role is to review and approve the operations of separate organizations that certify that EHR systems and modules intended for use in the incentive-payment program have passed all required tests as performed for accredited testing laboratories.

The testing and certification system helps ensure that IT products purchased by healthcare providers are technically capable of enabling providers to meet the program's meaningful-use requirements.

In January, the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology announced it was withdrawing from both the testing and certification of EHR systems under the federal program.

CCHIT's departure leaves five other Accredited Testing Laboratories recognized by the ONC and three other ONC-Authorized Certification Bodies.

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