1. I would worry about CCHIT. (edited 10/7/2006)
2. I asked the same question to Jon in an email. Jon can answer this question.
3. I dont think anybody will prohibit anybody from using non CCHIT certified EMR. For that matter though they are encouraging the use of EMR, it is not mandatory for anybody to practice in the US of A without an EMR- as of now. For that matter I would not care about CCHIT certification till every health care provider is forced to use an EMR first. As you know there are incentives presently to use EMRs, but still not mandatory. IMO- There are only two things which matter the most in medicine-(A) legal aspect- do everything right and (B) billing aspect - not to commit fraud. (C) Record keeping per State Boards of Medicines- just says keep records for 7 yrs, does not matter whether it is EMR or not.
4. I believe the price will be the same for all regardless of certification or not.
I read the price to get CCHIT certification is about $28,000 for three years and some yearly maintenance fees- $4800.00 per year x 2 = 9600. Jon has to see about 38 copies of AC software just to pay the fee x 3yrs. I also heard that it cost $ 200,000 for one company to get this certification from start to end- I presume, getting somebody to look into 300 items or so which have to be fulfilled, maybe make changes in the program, testing, submitting for exam, praying that the program passes- all of which takes a programmers time.
IMO- It would be better to go for a complete product with PMS software built into AC first as a priority than again in my opinion - getting this what looks a absurdly priced CCHIT certification.
Some references:
http://www.emrupdate.com/forums/thread/50771.aspxhttp://www.emrupdate.com/forums/thread/54518.aspxhttp://www.emrupdate.com/forums/2/52328/ShowThread.aspxhttp://www.cchit.org/physicians/buy/Physician+Guide+to+CCHIT+Certification.htmhttp://www.cchit.org/NR/rdonlyres/AC5E7A98-0785-4DDC-BA46-653A79B9BC7F/0/cchitPhysiciansGuide.pdf____________________________________________________________
This is from above thread-
The entire fee schedule can be found in the final certification agreement which is on the CCHIT website.
For example, CCHIT 2006 certification costs:
certifiy - $28,000
certication maintainance fee - to keep your 2006 certification for the full 3 years - $4,800/year = $9,600
recertify after your 3 years is up - $28,000
recertify if you want a CCHIT 2007 sticker - $28,000
new versions of software that are not substantially equivalent to the certified version
if CCHIT 2007 has not come out yet - $14,000
if CCHIT 2007 has come out - $28,000
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A company which charges $10000 or $15000 per copy of software as you see does not have to worry that much about the fee to get certified. (they sell 3 or 2 copies towards the fee) There will be always other costs associated (like that $200000 mentioned earlier) with getting certified, which I presume will be fixed for all companies.
____________________________________________________________
Regards--
