MedAllies Advances as the Seventh QHIN Candidate Under TEFCA

MedAllies has secured approval to proceed in its bid to become a Qualified Health Information Network (QHIN) under the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), marking it as only the seventh organization to achieve this milestone.

MedAllies specializes in delivering health data exchange services. The organization operates multiple national networks that facilitate interoperability for over 700 hospitals, 5,000 organizations, and 100,000 providers.

As a Health Information Service Provider (HISP), MedAllies provides the infrastructure to enable the secure sharing of health information among healthcare providers.

“We’re honored to be among the initial organizations to have our QHIN application approved,” John Blair, MD, chief executive officer of MedAllies, said in a press release. “With an eye toward usability and technology adoption, we’ve operated multiple national networks for more than a decade. If Designated a QHIN under the TEFCA framework, MedAllies will increase our reach and expand to additional healthcare stakeholder groups to help the country better experience the rewards of true interoperability.”

Although the recent approval allows MedAllies to proceed further through the QHIN TEFCA designation, it doesn't guarantee QHIN designation under TEFCA. This is contingent upon successful pre-production testing and completion of the project plan.

However, this approval does move the health IT organization closer to joining a 'network of networks’ for nationwide health data sharing.

The Trusted Exchange Framework consists of non-binding principles that form the basis for health information exchange, while the Common Agreement sets out the technical infrastructure and governance model for facilitating such exchanges.

The combined networks of the QHIN applicants encompass the majority of hospitals and tens of thousands of providers nationwide, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

Earlier this year, ONC announced the initial group of candidates to integrate TEFCA as a QHIN. These include Common Health Alliance, eHealth Exchange, Epic TEFCA Interoperability Services, Health Gorilla, KNO2, and Konza, all approved by both the ONC and the Sequoia Project.

“Interoperability is really creating that secure environment in which patients can get at the data that they want when they want it,” Lee Barrett, CEO & executive director of EHNAC, a health IT data standards accreditation organization, told EHRIntelligence in an interview.

Healthcare interoperability has long been a critical goal for the industry, but coordinating the moving parts between payers, providers, pharmacies, labs, and other key players has posed a challenge.

TEFCA will serve as the technical floor for healthcare interoperability. Upon application submission, the prospective QHIN entities will agree to the Common Agreement for proper data exchange.

Since the Sequoia Project released the first QHIN application in January 2022, the industry has shown enthusiasm, as TEFCA's implementation is anticipated to simplify health data exchange.

In fact, 68 percent of executives are actively working to meet the technical standards necessary for TEFCA compliance, a 2023 survey showed. Additionally, 32 percent of EHR executives are looking to be QHIN under TEFCA.

“With TEFCA, if a patient is rolled into an emergency room unconscious, the provider can get the patient’s personal identification from their purse or wallet and key that information into an EHR system, which will then pull all of these QHINs to create and develop a comprehensive EHR on that patient,” Barret explained.