NYSDA Publications

Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) Issues Newsletter

Aug 24, 2026
ONC Newsletter
WHAT'S INSIDE
 
  1. Coming Soon: 2026 CMS EHR Certification IDs
  2. ONC Finalizes the Adoption of Certain Health IT Standards in the FY2027 CMS IPPS Final Rule
  3. New! US Quality Core Test Kit Now Available on Inferno
  4. ONC’s 2026 Approved SVAP Standards
  5. ONC Health IT Certification Program Resources

Coming Soon: 2026 CMS EHR Certification IDs

Beginning September 1, 2026, the Certified Health IT Product List (CHPL) will make CMS EHR Certification IDs available that reflect the 2026 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) program reporting year.  These IDs will begin with the year-based prefix "2026C".  New this year, users who still need a 2025C ID for the 2025 reporting year will continue to be able to generate one through December 31, 2026.  During this overlap period, the CHPL CMS ID Creator will allow users to select either the 2025 or 2026 reporting year when generating an ID.  This overlap approach will continue annually moving forward to support users who may still need the previous reporting year’s ID to meet program requirements.  When generating a CMS EHR Certification ID, the selected certified health IT product or combination of products must collectively meet 100% of the Base EHR Definition for the selected reporting year.  For more information, please see the CMS EHR Certification ID Quick Reference.

ONC Finalizes the Adoption of Certain Health IT Standards in the FY2027 CMS IPPS Final Rule

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) partnered with CMS to finalize a series of health information technology (health IT) standards and specifications on behalf of HHS in the CMS FY 2027 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) final rule (CMS-1849-F).  These provisions were originally included as proposals in the 2026 CMS Interoperability Standards and Prior Authorization for Drugs (CMS-0062-P).  The standards ONC is adopting in the IPPS final rule support the interoperability of FHIR® APIs for: electronic prior authorization transactions; exchange of administrative and clinical data between payers and providers; sharing payer drug formularies; and sharing information about payer provider directories.  For more information on the adopted standards, please visit the ONC Finalizes the Adoption of Certain Health IT Standards in the FY2027 CMS IPPS Final Rule Fact Sheet.

NEW!  US Quality Core Test Kit Now Available on Inferno

The companion Inferno Test Kit for the 2026 US Quality Core FHIR Implementation Guide (IG) v0.5.0 is now live on Inferno on HealthIT.gov.  Released by ONC, the US Quality Core IG builds on US Core and aligns with existing HL7 quality standards to implement USCDI+ Quality v1 data elements in support of standardized quality data exchange.  The companion test kit validates both server and client implementations against the IG, so implementers can test conformance for either the producing or consuming side of quality data exchange.

ONC’s 2026 Approved SVAP Standards

The 2026 Approved SVAP Standards were announced on June 30, 2026, and will become available for use in the Certification Program on August 29, 2026.  For more information on the newly approved SVAP standards, please visit the SVAP webpage, fact sheet, and blog.

ONC Health IT Certification Program Resources

For Certification Program upcoming deadlines and events, please visit the ONC Program Resources page.  To submit questions or comments to ONC please use our Inquiry Portal.