The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has commissioned the creation of an open source tool — called Cypress — to test the ability of modular or complete electronic health record systems to meet clinical quality measures in Stage 2 of the meaningful use program, Health Data Management reports.
Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR systems can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments.
Details of the Tool
According to ONC, Cypress could be used to test the ability of EHR technology to:
Create a data file that another EHR component could use to calculate clinical quality measures;
Incorporate data from other IT systems and calculate the clinical quality measure results; and
Create a standard data file that CMS could accept electronically.
According to ONC, Cypress will be offered at no cost to EHR vendors and testing laboratories (Goedert, Health Data Management, 10/17). Cypress will not allow health care providers to directly attest to meaningful use, but it will allow certain EHR systems and modules to qualify as certified EHR technology.
Timeline
Cypress’ developers plan to release:
An alpha version of the tool for eligible professionals on Nov. 2; and
A beta version for eligible professionals, eligible hospitals and the quality reporting document architecture on Nov. 13 (Murphy, EHR Intelligence, 10/17).
The tool could be ready to be installed by authorized testing labs in December, according to Health Data Management (Health Data Management, 10/17).
