Poor usability of electronic health records is a patient safety concern. This qualitative study found that usability policies from the Office of the National Coordinator for electronic health records are less prescriptive about testing final products and rely more on attestation, compared to the Food and Drug Administration's usability policies for medical devices or the Federal Aviation Administration's usability policies for avionics. The authors suggest that other agencies' usability policies could inform federal efforts to enhance electronic health record usability.