DirectTrust Releases Finalized Criteria for TNAP-Participant Accreditation

DirectTrust, a non-profit healthcare industry alliance created to support secure, identity-verified electronic exchanges of protected health information, has released new criteria for its TNAP-Participant program V2.0.

The open process for adopting criteria, which included a comment period where stakeholders could give feedback, ended on March 20, 2023.

Updates to the accreditation program address the requirements that Participants and Subparticipants must meet to participate with a Qualified Health Information Network (QHIN) set forth by ONC and issued by The Sequoia Project, the ONC-designated Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE) for the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA).

"The enhancements made to our TNAP-Participant accreditation program are designed to ensure stakeholder-trust in addition to mitigating risk as Participant or Subparticipant organizations adhere to the Required Flow-Down Provisions administered by the RCE," Scott Stuewe, DirectTrust president and CEO said in a press release.

"Our third-party accreditation of these organizations will demonstrate to QHINs the candidate's compliance against TEFCA's Participant requirements," Stuewe added.

The TNAP-Participant accreditation program provides criteria based on the requirements detailed in the Common Agreement Version 1 and QHIN Technical Framework Version 1.

DirectTrust's Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC) governs the organization's accreditation and certification programs.

"As we continue our migration towards an interoperable healthcare ecosystem, attaining this accreditation establishes that a Participant or Subparticipant has met the appropriate policies, procedures, controls and has the required 'trust' framework in place, therefore demonstrating their readiness to participate in the exchange of protected health information," said Lee Barrett, commission executive director of DirectTrust.

"For QHINs, knowing their participants have achieved TNAP-Participant accreditation raises the bar not only for themselves when it comes to assuring how data is exchanged but also with the relying stakeholder who is on the receiving end of that data exchange," Barrett continued.