Sharing Health Data Update January 2025

We are now well past the 20 year mark in our quest for healthcare interoperability. Under an executive order from president G W Bush (April 2004), the ONC was established and Dr. David Brailer was dubbed “America’s first Health Information Czar.” The Meaningful Use program was then born out of the HITECH Act and Merit-Based Incentive Payment System was then born our of the MACRA legislation. And then information sharing from the CURES Act. And now the release of Trusted Exchange Framework and the Common Agreement (TEFCA). All trying to move our healthcare system to the digital age, better outcomes, controlling and reducing costs, and patient access to their health data. It has not been an easy road and the debate of the journey will never end.

Industry and Contract News

Mesh Health Solutions Partners with KONZA: Transforming Prior Authorization for Payers and Providers
Mesh Health Solutions, a provider of innovative solutions for the healthcare industry, announced a strategic partnership with KONZA National Network, a nationwide Health Information Exchange and a Qualified Health Information Networks® under the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common AgreementTM. This collaboration aims to streamline the Prior Authorization process, enhancing connectivity between payers and providers while aligning with the recent CMS final rule on Prior Authorization.

DirectTrust® Announces 2025 Accreditation Criteria Versions for All Accreditation Programs
DirectTrust®, a non-profit healthcare industry alliance focused on furthering trust in healthcare technology and data exchange through standards, accreditation, and other services, announced the release of new versions of program criteria for its 26 accreditation programs starting January 1, 2025.

Red Rover Health Raises $4 Million in Funding to Grow Healthcare App Store Platform
Red Rover Health, which enables healthcare providers to integrate “best of breed” third-party solutions into their electronic health record (EHR) systems, has received $4 million in seed funding from NewShore Partners. The latest funding gives Red Rover the capital to hire key talent to expand the core integration platform and scale operations.

Patent and Trademark Office Issues Ensemble’s Latest Patent – Using AI to Improve Clinician and Patient Experience
Ensemble, ranked consistently as the number one revenue cycle managed services company for healthcare organizations, announced the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted Ensemble its 11th patent for its latest innovative technology to drive frictionless revenue cycle operations and world-class patient experiences. The latest patented technology enables dynamic data retrieval, autonomous summary generation, decisioning and automated action across a variety of systems, including hospital electronic health record (EHR) systems.

C3HIE and Journal My Health Announce Strategic Partnership to Empower Patients and Enhance Care Coordination
C3HIE, a leader in health information exchange (HIE) across Texas, and Journal My Health (JMH), a patient-centric health data platform, announced a strategic partnership to empower patients and improve care coordination. This collaboration will leverage JMH’s innovative platform to enhance patient engagement and facilitate seamless data sharing between patients and their care teams.

Spotlight on Community Networks

The Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement (NRHI) and the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative (SHIEC) announced a formal affiliation between the two organizations to form a new organization named Civitas Networks for Health. The organization serves as a platform for local nonprofit health collaboratives and health information exchanges to grow and thrive. Read their latest news. Follow them @civitas4health.

Announcing 2025 Annual Conference Premier Partnership with 211 San Diego – 211 San Diego which encompasses Community Information Exchange (CIE) San Diego, and San Diego Health Connect (HIE) will serve as the premier conference partner for the 2025 Civitas Annual Conference alongside other California Civitas members. Convening under the theme, “Bridging Data and Doing,” the event will take place from September 28-30, 2025, in Anaheim, CA. Sponsorship opportunities are now available. As a sponsor, you’ll gain unparalleled visibility among 800+ expected industry leaders while demonstrating your organization’s commitment to innovation in health and health care. From keynote sessions to networking events, our sponsorship packages offer tailored opportunities to showcase your brand and connect with a highly engaged audience.

State HIE News

CRISP Shared Services Marks Milestone Year of Progress with Innovations in Public Health Modernization and Interoperability Services
Propelled by historic expansion of its reach across diverse systems and state lines, CRISP Shared Services (CSS) announced significant progress throughout 2024 toward its mission of providing localized and impactful health infrastructure and data exchange technology across the United States.

Connie Finishes Year Strong with Record Engagement Among Providers and Healthcare Systems, New Tools Driving Better Patient Care
Connie, the state-designated health information exchange for Connecticut, closed out 2024 with significant momentum and growth among its product and service offerings to providers as well as its connectivity with healthcare organizations and practices across state.

Hires and Openings

Contexture
Contexture is a nonprofit organization that provides strategic, technical and administrative support to communities committed to advancing health through information sharing. As the leading health information exchange for Arizona and Colorado, Contexture is the largest health information organization in the western region. They currently have an opening for a Chief Legal Officer & Privacy Officer.

Virginia Health Information
Virginia Health Information is seeking a Director of Analytics. The Director of Analytics leads VHI’s data analysis team and is responsible for implementing the organization’s data reporting strategy. This role serves as the primary point of contact to external organizations regarding several of VHI’s data collection programs, including the All-Payer Claims Database (APCD), Patient Level Data (PLD) and other data programs as assigned.

VITL
VITL is seeking a skilled technologist with a strong background in AWS technologies and expertise with the Linux operating system. The Linux SRE is responsible for building and maintaining distributed cloud solutions that support complex health data initiatives for the Vermont Health Information Exchange (HIE) and VITL. This position will support a team that is building data driven initiatives using Amazon AWS and open-source technologies. The Systems Engineer will also be responsible for building and maintaining systems in alignment with the security controls, governance processes, and compliance measures of VITL’s system security planning processes.

KONZA
KONZA is seeking an Information Security Analyst. The KONZA Information Security Analyst plays an important role in the success of KONZA and its partners. KONZA is a fast-paced, energetic environment. This position is responsible for providing security, informational, and quality support. In addition, this position monitors and escalates system risks and executes HITRUST standards across normal operations.

North Carolina Department of Information Technology
The NC Health Information Exchange Authority (NC HIEA) is seeking its next mission-driven, highly motivated and detail-oriented data quality team lead. The Data Quality and Integrity Team Lead (DQIL) will be the in-house data expert, comfortable working with data and business processes to enable new and innovative use cases for NC HealthConnex, the state-designated health information exchange, as well as enhance the overall experience for NC HIEA participants across external NC HealthConnex services.

Delaware Health Information Network
Maestro Strategies is assisting DHIN (Delaware Health Information Network), in the recruitment of a key Director, Data Engineer to join their leadership team. This is an exceptional opportunity with one of the leading Health Information Exchanges in the country that, since 2007, has provided data at the point of care in order to enable providers to deliver high-quality, cost-efficient care.

eHealth Exchange
Active in all 50 states, the eHealth Exchange is the largest query-based, health information network in the country. It is the principal network that connects federal agencies and non-federal organizations, allowing them to work together to improve patient care and public health. They have an open positions for:

Upcoming Events

Civitas Networks for Health

When: Wednesday, January 22, 2025 2:00 – 3:00 pm ET
Register for this event.

FHIR Deep Dive Webinar Series – Dive into the world of FHIR and its transformative impact on health data exchange! Join HL7 and leaders from the FHIR Accelerators — Gravity Project, Helios, Da Vinci, and FHIR at Scale Taskforce (FAST) — for an insightful 5-part webinar series. Gain a deeper understanding of FHIR, its applications, and groundbreaking projects leveraging FHIR Accelerators to shape the future of healthcare interoperability.

MiHIN

When: Thursday, January 23, 2025 11:00am – 12:00pm ET
Register for this event.

The Power of Health Information Exchange for Skilled Nursing Facilities: A Virtual Webinar Series – Join the Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services (MiHIN), Michigan’s statewide health information exchange, for two informative webinars to discover how your Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) can enhance data quality and availability and improve patient outcomes, and learn about reward opportunities available by participating in health information exchange (HIE).

ONC's Cures Act Final Rule

In May of 2020 the 21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program released by the ONC and published in the Federal Register.

The TEFCA Players

ONC Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE)

The Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE) – The Sequoia Project (@sequoiaproject)is responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining the Common Agreement component of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA). The Common Agreement is the baseline technical and legal requirements for health information networks to share electronic health information and is part of the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act).

In addition they will collaborate with ONC to designate and monitor Qualified Health Information Networks (QHIN), modify and update an accompanying QHIN Technical Framework, engage with stakeholders through virtual public listening sessions, adjudicate noncompliance with the Common Agreement, and propose sustainability strategies to support TEFCA beyond the cooperative agreement’s period of performance.

On August 28, 2023, the ONC awarded The Sequoia Project 5-Year TEFCA RCE Contract to continue their services.

RCE Resource Library – which includes a guide to the Common Agreement, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), technical documents, and other resources that make up TEFCA’s rules of the road. Start your journey to next generation interoperability here. ​

The Sequoia Project Addresses Health Data Information Sharing with Educational Toolkit – The Sequoia Project released an informational and educational toolkit to support providers, health IT developers, health information networks and exchanges, and the greater healthcare community’s commitment to compliance with the federal Information Blocking Rule (IBR).

The Sequoia Project Releases Data Usability Guide Version 2.0 – The Sequoia Project announced the release of the Data Usability Implementation Guide Version 2.0 created by its Interoperability Matters Data Usability Workgroup (DUWG). This resource covers the identified priority use cases that can be readily adopted within health information exchange vendors, implementers, networks, governance frameworks, and testing programs within 18 months.

Designated QHINs as of February 2024

Candidate QHINs

Organizations that have completed the Qualified Health Information Network® (QHIN™) application and have been accepted into the project planning and testing phase of the on boarding and designation process.

Interoperability Market

According to research by Grand View Research, the global healthcare interoperability solutions market size was estimated at USD 3.42 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.15% from 2024 to 2030. An increase in the adoption of interoperability solutions by healthcare authorities, a rise in investments to enhance healthcare facilities, favorable government initiatives to improve patient care, high government funding, and a focus on patient-centric care are some major factors propelling the market growth. In February 2023, the federal government provided USD 505 million to federal data partners and Canada Health Infoway to advance digital health tools and an interoperability roadmap. Thus, the rising investments and funding from government bodies are anticipated to drive the industry growth.