CCHIT takes a hit from Washington, D.C. area doctor who claims new certification group restrains free trade in EMR (Electronic Medical Record) software

Robert Gleeman
Medical Journalist for emrupdate.com
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For Immediate Release
Oct. 9, 2006
Mountain View, CA

CCHIT takes a hit from Washington, D.C. area doctor who claims new certification group restrains free trade in EMR (Electronic Medical Record) software.

In an exclusive telephone interview, I spoke with longtime member/writer of the chief Internet site for EMR discussion and information, the EMR Update Forum (www.emrupdate.com), Oncologist and EMR software developer, Alberto Borges, M.D

Dr. Alberto Borges

I asked Dr. Borges why he and other doctor/EMR developers have sent a letters of complaint such as his (Complaint about CCHIT to FTC) to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other governmental agencies, charging the CCHIT (Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology [http://www.cchit.org/]) with attempting to restrain free, fair, and open trade in EMR (Electronic Medical Record) software. (EMR is software which allows doctors to keep their patients' medical records on computers instead of as paper files.)

Dr. Borges answered, "The reason I'm sending these letters of protest is because, as it stands, I feel that CCHIT is a scam."

He continued, "Partly funded by tax-payers money, CCHIT is working closely with Medicare who want to tightly control doctors, particularly how much money doctors can charge for specific procedures. Medicare is pushing the evaluation criteria with which CCHIT certifies EMR software; not necessarily what will make for better, more doctor-friendly software.  You are looking at your government exerting greater control on your doctor, through Medicare and CCHIT. The government wants doctors to spend $50,000 for a CCHIT-certified EMR which makes sure they receive less money for their work. In my book, that's a scam."

A story in progress, I noticed that twelve other letters of protest are posted on the EMR Update Forum http://www.emrupdate.com. This web-site is a unique Internet-based world-wide community of doctors, software developers, vendors, health workers, and IT professionals who get together under a flag of truce to discuss EMR and related issues. The Forum has been known for years as a catalyst for change in medical software, and it appears, is fast becoming a catalyst for criticism of CCHIT.

Dr. Borges had a bit more to say about CCHIT certification: "EMR is a tool to make life simpler, not a tool for the government to control doctors. We don't need a certification program. This will stifle new ideas, and that is bad for a new science. There are 22 companies with CCHIT certification. They pay about $28,000 per year. CCHIT is a profit-making company, started with tax-payers money, designed to keep prices high on EMR software."

He added, "CCHIT misinformed the government with promises of interoperability and reduction of waste. The marketplace is being ignored. Trade is being restrained by a group of large software vendors who are trying to block the smaller vendors. I think CCHIT will eventually fall by itself, but I'm trying to help it along."

Here are a few sample links and excerpts from letters of protest regarding CCHIT which have been posted in the EMR Update Forum: http://www.emrupdate.com/forums/thread/56300.aspx 

"The CCHIT certification process flies against everything that living in the United States stands for -- free enterprise, decreased taxes and user fees, innovation, heterogeneity of choice, and the growth of the American HIT industry as a world leader. CCHIT will likely end competition from free to low cost EMRs and will decrease the revenues of many EMR vendors. The CCHIT "tax" will increase EMR prices resulting in the recently healthy increasing EMR adoption rate to stagnate and likely decrease. 

http://www.emrupdate.com/forums/thread/56240.aspx

"I think the CCHIT certification is absurdly priced, and with the added complexity brought on by the listed certified criteria, software will be become more unwieldy and difficult to learn and use on a day to day basis as we've seen historically software in general. If you study a recent PowerPoint presentation from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, you will see data that shows that the value of the software you purchase will fall rapidly, much more than a car. Of those physicians that purchase an EMR, 50% of implementations result in failure. Of those that succeed, only about 40% of EMR users actually avail themselves to the majority of functionality that the EMR offers. These numbers will worsen with the bloat added by CCHIT"

"I wanted to share my opinion with you regarding what my feelings are and what I think the physicians in USA should do. My opinion and suggestion to doctors in small practices who are contemplating to buy CCHIT products is -- look at what the ‘CCHIT certified' really means to your practice. Do you want to participate in pay-for-performance and feel that paying a premium of an extra $20,000.00 up front and another extra 30% more per year in EMR fees is worth the overall return on investment? Do you wish to close your office for 5 days of training for you and your supportive staff to learn features that you most likely will not use? For the 75% of physicians in small practices, the answer will be a resounding "NO!" and they will not want to purchase a CCHIT certified EMR. Forcing them to work within a CCHIT-centric Medicare system will accelerate not the use of EMRs but the number of Medicare non-participating physicians. I think all of us want the proliferation of EMRs within the medical industry to become a reality. The introduction of CCHIT, with its affect on competition and on EMR costs will be an albatross that should be stopped and I feel that a focus should be made towards work on interoperability, especially through the Continuity of Care Record (CCR) interoperability standard."

By Robert Gleeman
Medical Journalist for emrupdate.com
email me
emrupdate.com