eHealth Exchange Among First To Achieve TEFCA℠ Qualified Health Information Network™ (QHIN™) Designation

VIENNA, Va., Dec. 12, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, eHealth Exchange announced it’s been designated as a Qualified Health Information Network™ (QHIN™) under the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement℠ (TEFCA℠). This places eHealth Exchange’s electronic data-sharing network among the country’s first Designated QHINs to go live and operationally ready for exchange with other Designated QHINs.

The Sequoia Project, selected by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) as the Recognized Coordinating Entity® (RCE™) to support the implementation of TEFCA, led the signing ceremony alongside Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Beccera, HHS Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm, and National Coordinator for Health IT Micky Tripathi, Ph.D., M.P.P. in Washington, DC.  

“eHealth Exchange was the nation's first federally endorsed health information exchange,” said Jay Nakashima, executive director of eHealth Exchange. “It makes sense we are a leader in launching the nation's first federally endorsed trusted exchange framework. We are thrilled to see so many diverse health information networks achieve Designated QHIN status at the same time.”

Nearly a dozen regional health information exchanges (HIEs) operating in 15 states and serving 126 million patients have signaled their intentions to participate in QHIN-based exchange through the eHealth Exchange. These include:

• Alabama One Health Record, Alabama
• Big Sky Care Connect, Montana
• C3HIE, Texas
• CyncHealth, Nebraska and Iowa
• Contexture, Arizona and Colorado
• CRISP Shared Services, which provides HIE and health data utility infrastructure to six statewide non-profit HIE organizations: Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, and West Virginia, in addition to Washington, DC
• Indiana Health Information Exchange, Indiana
• Georgia Health Information Network, Georgia
• Manifest MedEx, a non-profit statewide health information network and designated CalHHS Data Exchange Framework (DxF) Qualified Health Information Organization (QHIO) serving all of California
• SCHIO, Serving Communities Health Information Organization in Santa Cruz County, California
• Virginia Health Information, which is the commonwealth’s non-profit health data organization with its statewide HIE known as ConnectVirginia
  

During its nearly 20-year history, eHealth Exchange has evolved to become the largest public-private health information network in the country. It facilitates roughly 20 billion data exchanges annually, providing connectivity for 60 regional and state HIEs, 75 percent of U.S. hospitals, 85 percent of dialysis centers, and 70,000 medical groups – as well as countless urgent care centers, surgery centers, and clinical laboratories. This experience includes supporting exchange across 30 different electronic medical record technologies, and eHealth Exchange is active in all 50 states, and connects to other national health information networks today via Carequality and now TEFCA.

Notably, eHealth Exchange is the only network that connects healthcare providers to five federal agencies – a clear differentiator from other designated and approved candidate QHINs.

“This Designated QHIN accomplishment truly was a team effort,” Nakashima said. “I want to recognize the staff and all of the participant volunteers who run the eHealth Exchange Coordinating Committee for the countless hours dedicated to meeting the stringent guidelines of TEFCA and successfully passing all conformance testing. As a Designated QHIN, we are excited eHealth Exchange participants can extend their data sharing even further to include all organizations that will participate in any of the other QHINs ultimately designated by ONC.”

Learn more about eHealth Exchange’s plan to become a QHIN at http://www.BeMyQHIN.org.

About the eHealth Exchange
The eHealth Exchange, a 501(c)3 non-profit, is among the oldest and largest health information networks in America and is most well known as the principal way the federal government shares data between agencies and with the private sector. The eHealth Exchange network, which is working in 75 percent of all U.S. hospitals, is leveraged by more than 30 electronic health record (EHR) technologies and 60 regional or state health information exchanges (HIEs). Five federal agencies (Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, Indian Health Service (IHS), Food and Drug Administration, and Social Security Administration) participate in the network to share patient information with private-sector partners as well as other agencies. The eHealth Exchange supports the secure exchange of patient records for more than 250 million patients in the United States. See: https://ehealthexchange.org / @ehealthexchange.

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