ONC FAQ on rebranding certified EHRs

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Question [9-10-009-1]:

I'm an EHR technology developer and I've had my Complete EHR certified. I work with business partners/distributors and permit them to sell my (unmodified) certified Complete EHR under their own brand/name/label. Is this business practice permitted? Is there anything that I should do or be aware of?

Answer:

Yes, this business practice is permitted. However, the ONC-ATCB that certified your Complete EHR is required to ensure that you adhere to the terms and conditions of the certification it issues, including communication of the information specified at 45 CFR 170.423(k). Thus, if you permit business partners/distributors to re-brand or rename your certified Complete EHR and represent that it has been certified, the ONC-ATCB that issued the certification for your Complete EHR may require you (consistent with Section 14 of Guide 65) to ensure that your business partners/distributors adhere to the requirements of 170.423(k) that apply to you. We encourage you to make arrangements with your business partners/distributors to ensure that they appropriately convey the information specified at 170.423(k).

Additionally, an ONC-ATCB is responsible for reporting to ONC a current list of the EHR technology it has tested and certified. Only EHR technologies reported by ONC-ATCBs to ONC will appear on ONC’s “Certified HIT Products List (CHPL).” Therefore, if you are an EHR technology developer that expects to work with business partners/distributors that will re-brand or rename your certified Complete EHR and represent that it has been certified, we encourage you to work with your ONC-ATCB to identify (up front, if possible, or on an ongoing basis) the different names under which your certified Complete EHR may be distributed. Otherwise, those re-branded or renamed Complete EHR(s) will not appear on the CHPL.

An ONC-ATCB is permitted to report information to ONC related to re-branded or renamed Complete EHRs that it has certified. We anticipate that we would list the re-branded or renamed Complete EHR(s) on the CHPL using the same unique certification identification that is assigned to your certified Complete EHR.

Please do not do this or imply that your re-branded OpenEMR version is certified without prior consent from the OEMR Board of Directors

You must be a member of the OEMR to be considered for re-branding approval. Please see: OEMRFundraising#Membership_Model for more details or contact a member of the OEMR board.