GRAPEVINE, TX – The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology is set to launch its 2011 certification program, designed to help hospitals and physician practices show the meaningful use of IT that is required to qualify for federal incentives.

"We're moving forward, skating toward the puck rather than waiting for it to move," CCHIT Chairman Mark Leavitt, MD, told an audience of healthcare information management professionals Monday at the annual American Health Information Management Association convention in Grapevine, Texas.

"This is our moon shot," he said, and noted that it cost about $34 billion for the country's first moon landing in 1969.

To be eligible for the roughly $34 billion in incentives provided in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the support of healthcare IT, healthcare organizations must use certified products and show meaningful use. The glitch: The government is still defining 'meaningful use.' The estimated time of arrival is spring 2010.

If the CCHIT and healthcare organizations wait for the definition before taking action, Leavitt said, those organizations could miss their chance at incentives.

That's why the CCHIT developed what he called a modular certification process based on the recommended definition of meaningful use that was released on July 16. The 2011 certification provides more flexibility, but a little less protection than the existing CCHIT program, he said.

"We believe it will not be more rigorous than what is proposed," Leavitt said. He called the proposed definition, which calls for e-prescribing, CPOE, drug decision support, electronic receipt of lab results, a problem list and quality reporting, "pretty ambitious." He said the final definition is not likely to be more rigorous.

Leavitt said the CCHIT is also developing a site development program that would make it possible for early adopters who developed their own IT systems to qualify for incentives. Without certified IT products, they could not be eligible under the federal rules.

He predicted there would be a surge in certification demand. More than 700 people attended a Sept. 3 meeting on certification, he noted, and two-thirds were vendors.

"We are talking about tripling the rate of adoption," he said. "We expect a burst of innovation. The vendors, just like the providers, share an urgency about not waiting. There are quite a few products we haven't seen before."

Leavitt told AHIMA attendees they are entering a "golden era."

"I think your job prospects are good," he said. "But I think your jobs are going to change."