About 9 weeks ago the comment period ended for the ONC NPRM on establishment of Certification Programs of a temporary program. Today the Interim Final Rule (IFR) was released. At a press conference today ONC Blumenthal opened and stated that this is a pivotal step to create the environment to foster EHR and meaningful use.
The rules which will be officially published in the federal register on the 24th are available in a non final format until then. While this IFR comes from the ONC’s previous Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) it only covers the Temporary Certification program. The IFR for the permanent program is expected by the end of the year.
The IFR covers two main subjects
- the process for an entity to apply and be a certifying organization and;
- the parameters for testing and certifying systems.
Applications for entities interested in becoming certifying organizations will be available upon request on July 1st. The ONC will be working to have entities in place by late summer and certified products by this fall.
Read the ONC press release here.