ONC corrects EMR certification proposal

The long-awaited and widely reported release of the proposed rule to establish a federally supervised EMR certification program last week apparently was just a dress rehearsal.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology published the proposal March 2, less than 30 minutes before convening a town-hall meeting at HIMSS10 in Atlanta. But an unspecified error caused ONC to retract the document and replace it on the Federal Register's public inspection desk with a version known as Federal Register Document 2010-4991, Health Data Management reports. That document appeared Wednesday.

Publication of the corrected version officially starts the 60-day public comment period on the proposed certification rule. Meanwhile, the comment period for the previously published ONC interim final rule on EMR standards and certification criteria and a CMS proposal for meaningful use of EMRs will close Monday, March 15.

To learn more:
- see this Health Data Management story
- view the corrected version of the ONC certification proposal

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