Providers are continuing to struggle with EHR adoption and meaningful use attestation, struggles that many hospitals say are a direct result of vendor challenges—in fact, legal suits against IT vendors on the rise and likely to keep rising (think Cerner's $106 million settlement this spring). The AMA petitioned for the July 1 hardship exemption deadline to be extended, but CMS declined. The federal agency has released a new interactive decision tool to help providers navigate their choices in 2014, but many hospitals and physicians feel that not enough has been done to address their concerns.
Despite the challenges surrounding attestation, some vendors have emerged as leaders in the field. Athenahealth's EMR athenaClinicals lead the pack for stage 2 attestations by a country mile. As of May 31, of the 485 eligible providers who have attested for Stage 2, 287 use athenahealth—almost a full 60 percent. In attestations overall (stages 1 and 2), Cerner tops the leaderboards with 942 hospital attestations.
Here are the top 10 EHR vendors by overall meaningful use attestation.