Leslie Kane, MA: Hi. I'm Leslie Kane, Executive Editor of Medscape Business of Medicine.
Electronic health records (EHRs) have become a large part of physician's lives, and attesting for meaningful use is a major activity lately. One component of meaningful use is having a certified EHR, but there is a lot of confusion about the relationship between EHR certification and meaningful use. There is confusion about what physicians need to do to attest for meaningful use.
To clarify some of these issues and discuss this further, we are here with Dr. Karen Bell, who is Chair of the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT). This was one of the first organizations to certify EHRs. Hi, Karen; thanks very much for being with us today.
Karen M. Bell, MD: Thank you so much Leslie, it is truly a pleasure to be here with you.
Ms. Kane: For an EHR to be certified, the EHR has to be able to do certain things, but meaningful use has more to do with how a physician uses the EHR. Has that caused a degree of confusion among users?
Dr. Bell:The entire program can be quite confusing, because physicians have expectations for everything from certification, all the way up to the payment mechanisms.
