Two organizations, Surescripts Well being Data Community LLC and the USA Certified Well being Data Community (USQHIN), a subsidiary of Velatura Public Profit Corp., are making use of to turn into Certified Well being Data Networks (QHINs) underneath the Trusted Trade Framework and Frequent Settlement (TEFCA).  

There at the moment are 20 organizations formally search QHIN standing and 7 “candidate QHINS,” together with: CommonWell Well being Alliance, eHealth Trade, Epic, Well being Gorilla, Kno2, KONZA Nationwide Community and MedAllies. These are organizations which have had their purposes accepted and are within the testing and venture plan completion part of the appliance course of.

E-prescribing community firm Surescripts mentioned its community delivered clinicians 2.5 billion treatment histories and 1.25 billion hyperlinks to medical paperwork on the level of care in 2022. Its Surescripts Community Alliance consists of almost all digital well being data distributors, pharmacy profit managers, pharmacies and clinicians, plus well being plans, long-term and post-acute care organizations, affected person entry distributors and specialty pharmacy organizations.

“We are the largest interoperability firm within the nation already,” Frank Harvey, Surescripts’ CEO, instructed Healthcare Innovation in a latest interview. 

“We’re very assured that we are able to serve everybody throughout the spectrum of healthcare. And if you concentrate on the Certified Well being Data, Networks in TEFCA, it actually does turn into a community of networks, as you’ll, as a result of each goes to achieve success bringing in individuals who can be their prospects,” Harvey added. “We actually assume the crew at ONC has executed a beautiful job. If you concentrate on what is the significance of this, it comes again to the affected person’s potential to verify they’re getting the precise remedy once they’re in entrance of a care supplier, as a result of with an incomplete medical report, they’re by no means certain that the precise selections are being made.”

Surescripts was a member of the Frequent Settlement Workgroup and labored with the Sequoia Challenge and ONC to draft the Frequent Settlement that established the infrastructure mannequin and governing method for securely sharing fundamental medical data between networks.

Moreover, Surescripts expertise, together with Surescripts Document Locator & Trade, relies on the HL7 FHIR normal that helps clinicians discover and retrieve medical paperwork exchanged through Carequality—a nationwide, consensus-based interoperability framework that allows data trade amongst well being knowledge sharing networks.

Surescripts famous that it has been a frontrunner within the adoption of the FHIR normal, collaborating in HL7 accelerators, together with the Argonaut Challenge, the DaVinci Challenge and FAST, aiming to satisfy the interoperability targets within the twenty first Century Cures Act.

USQHIN and mum or dad firm Velatura are strategic companions for HIEs, well being knowledge utilities, suppliers, payers, labs, sufferers, and public well being officers that share aggregated well being knowledge.  If accepted, QHIN designation would enable USQHIN to additional prolong this functionality nationwide. 
Velatura was established to increase the Michigan Well being Data Community Shared Companies’ modular and scalable interoperability services and products for entry and use outdoors of Michigan. For instance, Velatura serves because the infrastructure for the New Jersey Well being Data Community. It has labored with GaHIN, Georgia’s statewide HIE, to switch its legacy HIE system with Velatura’s cloud-based HIE platform. Additionally, the Wisconsin Statewide Well being Data Community (WISHIN) chosen Velatura to function the back-end technical platform for the state designated HIE.

USQHIN mentioned it will submit its formal QHIN utility in January 2024. 

“Interoperability is crucial for enhancing care coordination, bettering the affected person expertise, and unlocking the total potential of whole-person healthcare,” mentioned Tim Pletcher, D.H.A., govt director of USQHIN, in a press release. “USQHIN is a frontrunner within the protected, safe, and well timed trade of healthcare data, and turning into a QHIN is the subsequent logical step in our journey to enhance the care continuum by making worthwhile knowledge out there on the level of care. Attaining QHIN standing would allow us to make the most of our expertise and experience to affect coverage and decision-making round interoperability and FHIR-based trade.”

The Frequent Settlement, launched in September 2021, consists of six trade functions that organizations should help to be designated as a QHIN. The trade functions embrace Therapy, Cost, Well being Care Operations, Public Well being, Advantages Willpower, and Particular person Entry Companies.

USQHIN notes that it at the moment gives a number of core companies required by the ONC for QHIN certification, together with Question and Response for EHI requests from individuals, finish consumer Message Supply to guarantee that data is seamlessly handed to its closing vacation spot from QHIN to QHIN, Particular person Entry Companies giving sufferers management of their data, Significant Selection for people to find out how their private ePHI is disclosed and used, and ADT Hub, which is designed to extend the amount and high quality of admission, discharge, and switch messages out there to private and non-private individuals.