Dive Brief:
- Epic and Cerner have joined iPatientCare as official CMS Designated Test EHR vendors.
- McKesson and MIDITECH have both dropped out of the program, as did athenahealth, who participated in the pilot before the program was officially launched.
- When asked why vendors were leaving the program, a spokeperson for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology said, "The CMS Designated Test EHR Program is a voluntary program. Developers are not required to participate for any specific period."
Dive Insight:
The test program was designed to help eligible hospitals, critical access hospitals (CAHs) and providers meet Meaningful Use Stage 2's transition of care objective. Designated Test EHRs are registered on a software system called "EHR Randomizer," which is hosted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The software system randomly matches an eligible provider, eligible hospital or CAH with a test EHR that is designed by a different developer than the one they are using.