EHR Certification Bodies – Weno Healthcare To Enter the Fray

Today we got news of the new ONC-ATCB EHR certifying bodies: CCHIT and Drummond Group. However, this is really just the start of the EHR certifying bodies. ONC released that “Applications for additional ONC-ATCBs are also under review.”

One of those possible additional ONC-ATCB EHR certifying bodies is Weno Healthcare. This EMR Daily News guest blog post (Thanks Michelle for pointing it out) asserts that Weno Healthcare has submitted their application to be an ONC-ATCB EHR Certifying body. They also offer this interesting insight:

Until recently, only one body was promoted to do this testing and certification. Because of no competition, their prices were out of the ballpark for smaller technology companies who may have built the better and cheaper mouse trap for doctors and hospitals, but could not afford the fees for certification. The technology companies that certified their products earlier are not considered certified by the new rules today, so all technology vendors must go through an ONC-ATCB in order to be re-tested and certified, if they choose to do so.

If Weno is approved as an ONC-ATCB, more technology vendors can afford the testing and certification fees. Weno savings can be as much as $19,000 for complete EHRs. These savings will certainly provide physicians and hospitals with more cost effective certified technology options to choose from. Again, competition is a good thing because it brings prices down and quality up.

Comparing the Weno Healthcare EHR certification price above with the CCHIT and Drummond Group EHR Certification prices, it’s going to be really interesting. That puts the costs of EHR certification (not counting software development costs) at:
Weno Healthcare: $14,000-18,000
Drummond Group: $19,500
CCHIT: $33,000

Of course, this assumes that Weno Healthcare becomes an ONC-ATCB and that the prices don’t change. I won’t be surprised if they do change. Plus, there could be other EHR certifying bodies.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

8 Comments

  • I wished they’d have included more specific pricing information rather than a vague comparison, though probably they won’t until they get approval from the ONC. Regardless, I’m thinking there will be at least one more option for those seeking certification; if not Weno, then one of the other applicants.

  • Considering that grandfathering of previously certified EHRs was not accepted, I wonder how CCHIT will price the re-certification for them.
    It is also ashame that many doctors were taken advantage of by unscrupulous vendors of un-certified (and some un-certifiable) applications. This certification fiasco should have been ironed out in the beginning.

  • Javier,
    I hadn’t heard word about how CCHIT would charge for those that did the Preliminary certification. I think they’ll have to do something very generous or watch for a major backlash. I’ll see what I can find out.

    EHR certification is definitely a fiasco.

  • I tried to access the Weno Healthcare website, but got nothing. Anybody have a good URL for them?

  • This is just hype. The original post in emrdailynews.com was made by the president of weno healthcare. I highly doubt they have the resources and experience to do certifying of EMR systems seeing as looking at their texas corporation filing papers they havent been in business long.

    Anyone can go on emrdailynews.com and post a news release on their own company and anyone can apply for being an ONC-ATCB certifying body… the point that really matter is if they have the resources, experience, and can actually become one. And like I mentioned before, I highly doubt they have all those facets.

  • Mike,
    I don’t personally see what would be so hard about being a certifying body. There’s a brand issue with getting EMR vendors to use you and not other vendors. Otherwise, to me it’s pretty academic.

    All that said, what’s most interesting with Weno is the amount they’re looking to charge for certification. Whether they make it or not, it’s interesting to know what a company thinks they should charge for EHR certification.

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