SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ChartLogic Inc., a leader in the electronic health records industry since 1994, today announced its plans to obtain preliminary certification, and a subsequent guarantee for its providers: “I guarantee that ChartLogic EMR users will be able to meet the “meaningful use” requirements needed to receive the stimulus money,” said ChartLogic CEO Zubin Emsley.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) signed by President Obama in February 2009 creates a stimulus incentive for medical providers to adopt electronic health records. In order to obtain the incentive, eligible physicians and hospitals must demonstrate “meaningful use” of a certified EHR. A draft version of the meaningful use standards has been released and approved by several levels of government. However, with the final ruling not due until early 2010, ChartLogic has taken a proactive stance to ensure that doctors can implement the technology in time.

Today’s announcement comes after a series of record-breaking sales months for ChartLogic, and the likelihood of this increasing demand continuing. “If a medical practice delays their EHR purchase until after the final ruling, they will likely not be able to implement and demonstrate meaningful use by January 2011,” said Darren Gibson, Vice President of Sales. “The practice must then research and choose an EHR, implement it, and then use it fully. That is something which doesn’t occur overnight.” The risk is that a practice might not be able to demonstrate meaningful use by January 2011, which jeopardizes their opportunity to collect the full stimulus incentive of up to $44,000 per physician. ChartLogic Vice President of Operations, Chris Langehaug, added that due to such demand the operations department expects to ramp up implementation staff. However, the unprecedented demand will “likely create an implementation backlog for us and our competitors.”

Because of this risk, ChartLogic has adopted the stance of preliminary certification. The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) has created a “Preliminary ARRA Certification” program that allows EHR vendors to certify against the currently released requirements. The expectation is that requirements will likely loosen, not get more stringent. If the requirements do change, ChartLogic will be able to quickly make the modifications and then recertify, alleviating the risk from customers and prospects. ChartLogic users should contact the company to obtain information on the certification and the requirements for meaningful use.

The timing of today’s announcement is not a coincidence. Today is the first date that vendors can apply for this pre-certification program.