The healthcare organizations unveiled by the ONC this week have completed the certification process to support the exchange of healthcare data under TEFCA standards.
Federal officials have named the first five healthcare organizations to become Qualified Health Information Networks (QHINs), giving them the credentials to support the exchange of health data through TEFCA (Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement).
The announcement follows years of work on the underlying foundation for nationwide health interoperability, which was envisioned in the 21st Century Cures Act. The goal is to create a healthcare system where all parties, including health systems, payers, and patients, can exchange data from a variety of sources, ranging from EHR platforms to digital health wearables.
[See also: ONC Commits to Support for FHIR in Updated TEFCA Standards.]
“After over a decade of very hard work, today marks another major milestone in our march towards a 21st century digital health care system,” US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said during a signing event Tuesday at HHS headquarters. “TEFCA allows patients, providers, public health professionals, health insurers, and other healthcare stakeholders to safely and securely share information critical to the health of our country and all of our people.”
[See also: Tech Advocates Urge Patience—And Preparedness—As Interoperability Plan Moves Forward.]
The following organizations worked their way through the TEFCA certification process to become officially designed QHINs:
- eHealth Exchange
- Epic Nexus
- Health Gorilla
- KONZA
- MedAllies.
QHINs are, according to the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), “the pillars of TEFCA network-to-network exchange, providing shared services and governance to securely route queries, responses, and messages across networks for eligible participants including patients, providers, hospitals, health systems, payers, and public health agencies.”
“In February 2023 we announced that TEFCA would be operational by the end of the calendar year, and we are delighted to achieve this goal,” ONC Chief Micky Tripathi, PhD, said in a press release accompanying the signing ceremony. “This would not have happened without tremendous stakeholder support, considerable investment of resources and expertise by the QHINs, and the hard work of the RCE (Recognized Coordinating Entity the Sequoia Project) and ONC staffs.”
ONC officials expect to roll out an updated version of TEFCA, called TEFCA 2.0, during the first quarter of 2024. The new version will include enhancements and updated to support Health Level Seven (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)-based transactions.
Eric Wicklund is the associate content manager and senior editor for Innovation at HealthLeaders.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The federal government set a schedule in the 21st Century Cares Act to enforce nationwide healthcare interoperability.
A first version of the so-called “on-ramp” for data exchange, called TEFCA, was unveiled earlier this year, and several organizations have been working to adopt those standards.
TEFCA 2.0 is expected to come out next year, and will include support for HL7 FHIR-based transactions