The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology is halting testing of EHR products against "Stage 1" criteria for meaningful use until the organization earns accreditation from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

"We have reviewed the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking [released earlier this month] regarding certifying bodies, and we feel confident about our prospects of becoming accredited. We plan to file an application with the Office of the National Coordinator as soon as it is ready to accept them. Until CCHIT becomes accredited, we are suspending any initial or incremental Modular testing until we can test against an accredited Stage 1 ARRA test script," reads a notice posted on the CCHIT website. CCHIT has scheduled a public "town call" via telephone and the web for Thursday at 3 p.m., CDT to discuss its plans.

The decision comes as CCHIT formally submitted comments to ONC on the interim final rule on standards and certification of EHRs, in which the organization warns of an "unintended deceleration in the pace of adoption" because the rule is too complex in some areas and contradictory in others. "A particular concern surrounds the reporting of quality measures, with the IFR calling for standards and measures that are yet to be defined or that require significant revision to make them computable from EHR-based data," CCHIT says.

Meanwhile, the Drummond Group, a potential competitor to CCHIT, confirmed its intention to apply for ONC accreditation as a certification body.

For more:
- read this CCHIT notice
- find out how to participate in the CCHIT town call
- check out this Government Health IT story
- read this Drummond Group blog post

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The decision to stop work on an online appointment-scheduling system will save the Department of Veterans Affairs $37 million this year, or about two-thirds of the projected $54 million in savings from halting 12 IT programs department-wide.

The scheduling system, called the Replacement Scheduling Application Development program, which already has cost the VA $167 million to date, still could be restarted in the future, but likely with a different approach and a new name. "The requirement [for upgrading the VA scheduling system] has not gone away," Stephen Warren, the VA's principal deputy assistant secretary for information and technology, tells Federal Computer Week. "The need is critical."

It is not the only canceled program VA officials see as important to the future of the Veterans Health Administration. Portions of another project, Pharmacy Re-engineering, already have been restarted, according to a department spokesman.

For more details on Replacement Scheduling Application Development and other VA IT plans:
- check out this Federal Computer Week story

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Though the health IT industry is gearing up for the federal health IT stimulus program that begins in October for hospitals and next January for physician practices, don't expect a big increase in health IT budgets this year. Global spending on health IT fell to $79.8 billion in 2009 from $85 billion a year earlier, according to Gartner research, and is only forecast to rebound to $82.2 billion in 2010, with much of the momentum to come from overseas. In the U.S., Gartner says growth will only be about 1.5 percent this year.

Still, many CIOs find themselves in better positions now than they were during the depths of the recession in late 2008, in part because they've already made some difficult cuts that have left them more prepared for the future. "I am so excited about this year. Our situation is definitely improving," Jamie Mooney, CIO of Norwalk (Conn.) Hospital, tells Healthcare Informatics. "Because we watched financial metrics closely last year and we delayed some projects, the hospital actually had a pretty good year fiscally despite the economy. Now we are in a much stronger position and able to do some projects."

At University Hospital in Augusta, Ga., CIO William Colbert has to compete with other departments for his share of capital investments, but he's already done the hard work of convincing hospital executives to emphasize IT. "Our overall capital budget actually looks worse for 2010 than it did for 2009, but our chief operating officer knows that because of the stimulus funding and other issues, we have to place a priority on several IT projects," Colbert says. University Hospital is installing physician documentation now and has plans to purchase revenue-cycle management technology from McKesson.

For more on the 2010 outlook for HIT spending:
- click through to this Healthcare Informatics story

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After previously stripping a provision from a jobs bill to expand federal health IT incentives to hospital-based physicians, the Senate last week passed legislation that would make physicians who work in outpatient areas of hospitals eligible for the same Medicare and Medicaid bonuses as their office-based brethren. However, the "meaningful use" program still would exclude practitioners in inpatient and emergency departments.

H.R. 4213, the American Workers, State, and Business Relief Act of 2010, is primarily intended to extend unemployment benefits, provide some tax breaks and delay the scheduled Medicare physician payment cut until Oct. 1, but it includes language that would change Medicare and Medicaid rules to widen physician eligibility for health IT subsidies under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The legislation passed the Senate on a 62-36 vote, and now must go before the House.

for more information:
- read this CMIO news brief

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California officials have designated a new organization to lead health information exchange efforts in the state in hopes of helping healthcare providers capture more than $3 billion in federal stimulus funding for meaningful use of health IT.

Within the next six months, state officials will transfer responsibilities for governance of health IT within California to the not-for-profit, called Cal eConnect. The organization, which represents a consolidation of CalRHIO and the California eHealth Collaborative, two of the seven groups that sought recognition from the state, will determine which HIT vendors meet national standards for HIE, e-prescribing and other activities aimed at improving quality and efficiency of care delivered to Medicare and Medicaid patients in California.

"This organization is intended to help create a consensus about how institutions like hospitals, clinics, and physician practices can communicate with each other in a safe way," Jonah Frohlich, California's deputy secretary for health information technology, explains in a Health Leaders Media report.

David Lansky, CEO of the Pacific Business Group on Health, and Don Crane, CEO of the California Association of Physician Groups, will co-chair the new organization. The rest of the 22-member Cal eConnect board has not been appointed, but will represent a broad coalition of healthcare stakeholders, including safety-net providers, according to Frohlich.

To learn more:
- take a look at this Health Leaders Media story

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Nurses have long suspected that they spend far too much time shuffling paper and chasing down equipment rather than caring for patients, and now there's some data to back them up. A new survey from Jackson Healthcare in Alpharetta, Ga., finds that hospital-based nurses across the country can devote as much as 25 percent of their time filling out forms, documenting patient encounters in multiple locations and hunting down supplies and medical devices. Many of the more than 2,400 nurses and nursing managers surveyed recommended solving this problem with additional staff support, elimination of redundant regulatory requirements and, yes, hospital-wide communications technology. It will be interesting to see if the federal HIT stimulus changes these conditions. Summary

> The National eHealth Collaborative, successor to the American Health Information Community, has created "NHIN University," a program to educate the health IT sector about the Nationwide Health Information Network. Article

> Trinity Health has implemented Medicity HIE software between three Michigan hospitals and nearly 1,000 affiliated physicians in less than 10 weeks. Press release

> The TriZetto Group has named Dr. Jeffrey Rideout its chief medical officer and senior VP for care and cost management. Press release

> Physicians will receive 50 percent of their continuing medical education online by 2016, a new study suggests. FierceHealthcare

> Health lawyers are growing increasingly nervous about the HIPAA issues that health professionals may face when using social media tools such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and blog. FierceHealthcare

> The preceding item notwithstanding, WebMD Health has launched its own health social networking platform, though WebMD Health Exchange has a distinct consumer orientation. Article

> Two former provincial health officials and a physician in British Columbia, Canada, have been charged with fraud related to the awarding of several telehealth contracts. Article

And finally... Happy 25th anniversary to the ".com" domain. Article