The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), a Chicago-based nonprofit, is shutting down operations after 10 years in service.
In the past, the health IT certification and education-focused nonprofit has offered electronic health record (EHR) testing and certification services and independently developed certification programs. Earlier this year, it announced it was switching from certification to offering direct counseling on the requirements for certified EHR technology. It's told customers and business colleagues that it's shutting down completely by mid-November.
CCHIT has worked with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) as well as the Healthcare Information angement and Systems Society (HIMSS), the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), and others on certification programs. In 2010, it was an ONC authorized certification body and testing laboratory for health IT.
“Though CCHIT attained self-sustainability as a private independent certification body and continued to thrive as an authorized ONC testing and certification body, the slowing of the pace of ONC 2014 Edition certification and the unreliable timing of future federal health IT program requirements made program and business planning for new services uncertain. CCHIT’s trustees decided that, in the current environment, operations should be carefully brought to a close," Alisa Ray, CCHIT executive director, said in a statement.
