NextGen Healthcare Achieves 2015 ONC Health IT Update Certification

NextGen Healthcare announced that its small practice EHR solution recently received the stamp of approval from the 2015 ONC Health IT Update Certification via Drummond Group LLC, an Authorized Certification Body (ACB).

In 2010, the ONC Health IT Certification Program was established to signal which health IT products meet the necessary standards, security measures, implementation specifications, and other criteria to fulfill requirements.

This approval indicates that NextGen Office includes useful functionality to help providers comply with the latest interoperability standards, including the 21st Century Cures Act update.

According to NextGen, the health IT solution is geared towards increasing clinical productivity, the patient experience, access to patient data, and improving financial outcomes.

“This certification underscores NextGen Healthcare’s commitment to interoperability within the healthcare continuum,” David Sides, president, and chief executive officer of NextGen, said in a public statement. “Obtaining certification from the ONC demonstrates our continued focus on paving the way for practices of all sizes to meet complex technical requirements and comply with applicable government regulations, while enabling providers to focus on what matters most — caring for patients.”

Health systems are more likely to implement EHRs certified through the ONC Health IT Certification Program.

A 2021 JAMIA study showed that almost all hospitals and 80 percent of physicians had implemented EHRs certified through the ONC Health IT Certification Program.

Even though certification adoption is expected to boost data exchange and interoperability, the program’s ability to achieve nationwide interoperability is limited.

The researchers found that almost 40 percent of hospitals adopted the 2015 edition certified health IT between 2016 and 2018, which increased interoperability engagement by 18 percent.

However, adoption alone will not lead to nationwide interoperability.

“While updates to the ONC Health IT Certification Program, in the form of revisions to certified technology technical specifications and data standards, can help accelerate improvements in interoperability, they are unlikely to deliver on nationwide interoperability alone,” the study authors wrote. “The 2015 Edition has a clear upper bound on its ability to advance interoperability.”

ONC has introduced several new standards and regulations to promote interoperability.

The Cures Update certification criteria include the new standardized FHIR application programming interface (API) to facilitate interoperability across certified health IT developers and clinical settings, ONC officials noted in a HealthITBuzz blog post.

Yet, tweaking software for interoperability gain is not that simple; health developers must make considerable interoperability advantages in the coming months to meet the 2015 Edition Cures Update.