Understanding the EHR Certification Criteria

Navigating the Meaningful Use and Standards and Certification Criteria Final Rules can sometimes be a challenge. To help, ONC developed grids that capture the meaningful use objectives, measures, and exclusions, and the correlated EHR certification criteria and standards. The grids also reference the relevant preamble page ranges associated with each requirement from both of the respective rules. 

Each grid follows the same format:

• The first main column references meaningful use objectives and measures and serves as the anchor around which the rest of the grid is organized. The core set objectives and measures are listed first followed by the menu set objectives and measures.
• The second column references the EHR certification criteria that correlate with each meaningful use objective and measure. Note, the combined version includes colored text for two purposes: 1) to identify certification criteria that are specific to either ambulatory (blue) or inpatient (red) settings; and 2) to call out wording nuances that are unique to an ambulatory or inpatient specific certification criterion where we have combined the ambulatory and inpatient certification criteria to save space. Where black text is used, the certification criterion is the same for both settings.
• The third column identifies the standard(s) and implementation specifications referred to by each certification criterion, where applicable.

In response to feedback from stakeholders, CMS and ONC have worked together to expand the original version of the grid below to include a number of resources all in one place.

• Expanded Grid [DOCX - 100 KB]

These new grids include hyperlinks to:

• CMS and ONC FAQs that are relevant to each meaningful use objective and measure and EHR certification criterion listed in the grid;
• Each of the CMS meaningful use specification sheets developed for eligible professionals and eligible hospitals; and
• More information about the standards and implementation specifications adopted and referred to in each of the certification criteria.

We intend to periodically update these grids as new FAQs are published and other documentation becomes available.

The reference grids for the EHR certification criteria are available for download below:

1. EP/EH & CAH objectives and measures grid [PDF – 365 KB] - Includes only the Eligible Hospitals (EH) & Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) objectives and measures and the standards and certification criteria for the inpatient setting.
2. EP/ambulatory setting only grid [PDF – 311 KB] - Includes only the Eligible Providers objectives and measures and the standards and certification criteria for the ambulatory setting.
3. EH & CAH/inpatient setting only grid [PDF – 309 KB] - Includes only the EH&CAH objectives and measures and the standards and certification criteria for the inpatient setting.

Please note that these grids are unofficial recitations of only a portion of the regulations. The official version of all federal regulations is published in the Code of Federal Regulations.

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