Emdeon Clinician receives Meaningful Use of EHR Technology certification

Emdeon Inc. (NYSE: EM), a leading provider of healthcare revenue and payment cycle management solutions, today announced that Emdeon Clinician™ has been certified to meet Stage 1 Certification Criteria for Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Record (EHR) Technology by the Drummond Group Inc. Emdeon Clinician is a component of Emdeon Office Suite™, which allows healthcare providers to tap into Emdeon's vast network of payers, providers, labs and pharmacies for clinical, financial and administrative healthcare transactions.

Meaningful Use criterion under the HITECH provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) requires healthcare providers to successfully capture and exchange electronic clinical healthcare information, such as electronic prescriptions and lab orders, to receive incentives and avoid penalties in payments from Medicare and Medicaid. Emdeon Clinician is a web-native, SaaS solution offered on a subscription basis that functions as an "EHR Lite" and allows providers to meet Meaningful Use without reengineering their entire practice workflow. Emdeon Clinician also integrates easily with practice management software, allowing providers to link in their patient demographic and insurance data. Furthermore, Emdeon Clinician is compatible with electronic medical records (EMR) systems and supports bi-directional clinical information exchange.

Providers may use Emdeon Clinician as a stand-alone service, or as an integrated module within the Emdeon Office Suite. Emdeon Office Suite is an easy-to-use web-based application that simplifies everyday administrative and clinical processes, including eligibility and benefits verification, claims and payment management, patient billing and payment, as well as clinical tools that can help providers meet Meaningful Use criteria. When combined, Emdeon Office and Emdeon Clinician provide a full suite of clinical, financial and administrative capabilities in a simple, single sign-on portal.

"Emdeon Clinician gives healthcare providers a certified solution at a low cost," said Miriam Paramore, senior vice president of clinical and government services for Emdeon. "It provides a glide path to a comprehensive EHR when the practice is ready for workflow redesign. In the meantime, it helps providers qualify for federal HITECH stimulus dollars -- without unnecessary disruption and expense -- and includes a money back guarantee."

Emdeon Clinician was certified by the Drummond Group Inc., an approved Health and Human Services, Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) certifying organization as well as an ONC-Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ONC-ATCB). The Drummond Group certifies complete EHRs, as well as EHR modules, like Emdeon Clinician, for both ambulatory and inpatient settings. Eligible professionals, eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs to collect incentive payments through Meaningful Use of electronic health record technology must use EHR technology certified by an ONC-ATCB.

The ONC-ATCB certification aligns with the standards contained in Health Information Technology: Initial Set of Standards, Implementation Specifications, and Certification Criteria for Electronic Health Record Technology published in the Federal Register in July 2010 and strictly adheres to the test procedures published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) at the time of testing.