This post was written by Jacqueline B. Penrod.

On March 10, 2010, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) published a proposed rule to establish certification programs for health information technology (HIT). The rule follows the publication of two other rules on January 13, 2010 that addressed the adoption of certification standards and criteria and established a proposed definition of “meaningful use” that will be applied to determine the initial incentive payments to providers pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The March 10 proposed rule describes two certification programs. The first program would establish a temporary certification process so that organizations will be able to test and certify complete electronic health records (EHR) and/or EHR modules; the second program would be more comprehensive and is designed to replace the temporary program with a permanent one. The purpose for proposing a temporary program initially is to assure the availability of certified EHR technology before providers must demonstrate meaningful use in order to be eligible to receive payments under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentives Program. It is anticipated that there will be a separate final rule issued for each of these programs. Comments on the temporary certification program must be submitted by April 9, 2010; comments on the permanent certification program are due May 10, 2010.