Two organizations, Surescripts Well being Info Community LLC and the US Certified Well being Info Community (USQHIN), a subsidiary of Velatura Public Profit Corp., are making use of to grow to be Certified Well being Info Networks (QHINs) below the Trusted Trade Framework and Widespread 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 functions accepted and are within the testing and undertaking plan completion section of the applying course of.
E-prescribing community firm Surescripts mentioned its community delivered clinicians 2.5 billion medicine histories and 1.25 billion hyperlinks to medical paperwork on the level of care in 2022. Its Surescripts Community Alliance contains 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, informed Healthcare Innovation in a latest interview.
“We’re very assured that we will serve everybody throughout the spectrum of healthcare. And if you consider the Certified Well being Info, Networks in TEFCA, it actually does grow to be a community of networks, as you’ll, as a result of each goes to achieve success bringing in individuals who will probably be their clients,” Harvey added. “We actually suppose the workforce at ONC has carried out an exquisite job. If you consider what is the significance of this, it comes again to the affected person’s means to ensure they’re getting the correct remedy after they’re in entrance of a care supplier, as a result of with an incomplete medical file, they’re by no means positive that the correct selections are being made.”
Surescripts was a member of the Widespread Settlement Workgroup and labored with the Sequoia Undertaking and ONC to draft the Widespread Settlement that established the infrastructure mannequin and governing strategy for securely sharing fundamental medical info between networks.
Moreover, Surescripts know-how, together with Surescripts Report Locator & Trade, is predicated on the HL7 FHIR normal that helps clinicians discover and retrieve medical paperwork exchanged through Carequality—a nationwide, consensus-based interoperability framework that permits info alternate amongst well being knowledge sharing networks.
Surescripts famous that it has been a frontrunner within the adoption of the FHIR normal, taking part in HL7 accelerators, together with the Argonaut Undertaking, the DaVinci Undertaking and FAST, aiming to fulfill the interoperability objectives within the twenty first Century Cures Act.
USQHIN and dad or mum 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 permit USQHIN to additional prolong this functionality nationwide.
Velatura was established to increase the Michigan Well being Info 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 Info 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 Info Community (WISHIN) chosen Velatura to function the back-end technical platform for the state designated HIE.
USQHIN mentioned it might submit its formal QHIN utility in January 2024.
“Interoperability is important for enhancing care coordination, enhancing the affected person expertise, and unlocking the total potential of whole-person healthcare,” mentioned Tim Pletcher, D.H.A., government director of USQHIN, in a press release. “USQHIN is a frontrunner within the protected, safe, and well timed alternate of healthcare info, and changing into a QHIN is the following logical step in our journey to enhance the care continuum by making beneficial knowledge obtainable on the level of care. Reaching 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 alternate.”
The Widespread Settlement, launched in September 2021, contains six alternate functions that organizations should assist to be designated as a QHIN. The alternate functions embody Therapy, Cost, Well being Care Operations, Public Well being, Advantages Dedication, and Particular person Entry Companies.
USQHIN notes that it at present offers a number of core providers required by the ONC for QHIN certification, together with Question and Response for EHI requests from individuals, finish consumer Message Supply to guarantee that info is seamlessly handed to its last vacation spot from QHIN to QHIN, Particular person Entry Companies giving sufferers management of their info, Significant Alternative 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 obtainable to private and non-private individuals.
