Lobby wants to control certification of health IT

Major technology vendors want the Obama administration to choose their own entity to be the primary authority on certification of all electronic health-records funded by the billions of dollars from the economic stimulus package.

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society--which represents 350 technology vendors and 20,000 members--wants the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, or CCHIT, to have responsibility for deciding what health record systems are eligible to receive stimulus funding.

Not everyone thinks this is a good idea: There have been warnings that the certification commission was created by the industry, that it will not exercise independent judgment and that it should not be the one deciding what medical providers should buy. The Department of Health and Human Services will have to make a decision soon.

For more on this debate:
- see this Washington Post article