Latest news with #TrustedExchangeFrameworkandCommonAgreement
Politico
6 days ago
- Health
- Politico
Where is Tom Keane?
WASHINGTON WATCH President Donald Trump unveiled on Wednesday a federally driven initiative that will allow Americans to access their medical records via an app, potentially marking the end of health care's long reliance on paper. At a White House event, he invited 60-some companies in health care — from rural health care providers to tech giants — to agree to work to free up health data from within doctors' offices, apps, information exchanges and payer databases. But notably, Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and head of the Office for the National Coordinator for Health IT Tom Keane was absent from yesterday's activities at the White House. 'You own your medical records. They're yours. Why you can't have access to them is this stunning reality in modern-day America,' Dr. Mehmet Oz, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, said at the event. The aim is to make patient data available for use in apps and artificial intelligence tools, enabling Americans to more easily book health appointments, receive health advice from AI agents and give their care providers better insight into their health. Somewhat surprisingly, this effort is being driven by CMS instead of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, which writes the rules for electronic medical records and the guidelines for how health data flows in this country. So where was he? Keane spoke at a morning event in the Eisenhower building for both signatories of the commitments and members of the health care industry who were not invited to the White House announcement, about the need for trusted data infrastructure to support CMS new initiative, according to three health care industry advocates who attended. TEFCA: Despite extensive discussions about interoperability, notably absent was any mention of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, also known as TEFCA, a federally supported health information network championed by former head of the Office of the National Coordinator Micky Tripathi. 'TEFCA is a huge piece of how this data exchange will be done to meet part of the commitments,' said Joe Ganley, vice president of regulatory affairs at electronic health record Athenahealth. His company announced on Tuesday that all of its roughly 100,000 clients can now send and receive data on TEFCA. But he also said the commitments aren't prescriptive, and he expects data exchange to happen in other ways, including via more direct connections. As part of those industry commitments, CMS had an opportunity to require participation in TEFCA, but notably didn't ask for that. What else: Industry may also turn to data networks that it has long relied on instead of TEFCA. Jason Prestinario, CEO of health IT firm Particle Health, who signed the commitments along with Carequality, an existing network for sharing data, called on the latter to change its rules to require better data flow. 'A simple change of the [Carequality] rules from 'should' to 'must' on individual access would immediately accomplish many of the goals CMS set today,' he wrote on LinkedIn. That would enable patients to get their records directly from Carequality participants, which includes health systems among others. WELCOME TO FUTURE PULSE This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. ICYMI: Peter Bowman-Davis, recent undergrad at Yale University and now former HHS chief AI officer, has left the building. Chief Technology Officer Clark Minor will take over his responsibilities. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Carmen Paun at cpaun@ Ruth Reader at rreader@ or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@ Want to share a tip securely? Message us on Signal: CarmenP.82, RuthReader.02 or ErinSchumaker.01. MORNING MONEY: CAPITAL RISK — POLITICO's flagship financial newsletter has a new Friday edition built for the economic era we're living in: one shaped by political volatility, disruption and a wave of policy decisions with sector-wide consequences. Each week, Morning Money: Capital Risk brings sharp reporting and analysis on how political risk is moving markets and how investors are adapting. Want to know how health care regulation, tariffs, or court rulings could ripple through the economy? Start here. WORLD VIEW For American lawmakers hoping to make the web safer for kids, the last week in the U.K. offers a bracing lesson in unintended consequences, writes POLITICO's Aaron Mak. Doctors, researchers, and even the former U.S. surgeon general under President Joe Biden, Vivek Murthy, have expressed increasing concern about the impact of social media on children's mental and physical health. A new law to promote online safety in the United Kingdom has swept up a lot more content than social media users expected, and a wide range of advocacy groups and disgruntled consumers are rising to object. The U.K.'s Online Safety Act took effect Friday to shield minors from 'harmful' content — not just pornography, but also material that's hateful, promotes substance abuse or depicts 'serious violence.' The rules apply to any site accessible in the U.K., even those based in the U.S. This means sites like Reddit, Bluesky and even Grindr now have to abide by the OSA's speech regulations to stay online in the country. The debut of the OSA has been met with swift pushback. After a petition to repeal the act received more than 350,000 signatures, the U.K. government responded Monday that it had no plans to do so. Nigel Farage, leader of the far-right Reform U.K. party, has also pledged to repeal the act. VPNs, which route a user's internet traffic through another country, have hit the top of the U.K.'s app download charts. Though the U.S. isn't as tough on tech as Europe, both state and federal lawmakers take cues from their regulatory approach. For example, the language for California's Age Appropriate Design Code Act, which is on pause as courts decide whether it's constitutional, was inspired by the U.K. Children's Code. U.S. lawmakers can't bar minors from particular kinds of content, even if it's hateful or age-inappropriate, because it runs up against free speech rules. Still, the U.K.'s Online Safety Act may offer a window into how American youth are likely to respond to age-verification laws. States, including Texas, Louisiana, and Utah, are passing rules that require app stores to get parental consent before kids can download apps. And the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld age-verification laws related to pornography that at least 23 states have in place. While those laws are more limited than the U.K.'s law, the rollout of the safety act could offer lessons for states passing and enforcing age-verification requirements. 'We're seeing that regardless of where you implement these laws and these measures, users are still frustrated,' Paige Collings, senior speech and privacy activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Mak. She pointed out that Florida also saw a spike in searches for VPNs after it implemented an online porn law in January.
Malaysian Reserve
7 days ago
- Business
- Malaysian Reserve
Health Gorilla Joins CMS-Aligned Network as a Trusted Data Network Enabling AI-Ready Clinical Data Exchange
CORAL GABLES, Fla., July 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Health Gorilla, a designated Qualified Health Information Network (QHIN) under the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), today announced its participation as one of the inaugural data network early adopters in the CMS-Aligned Network. Recognized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a trusted exchange partner, Health Gorilla brings a unique capability to the initiative: enabling secure, standards-based access to AI-ready structured clinical data at national scale. Unveiled at a White House convening of over 30 leading healthcare and technology organizations, the CMS-Aligned Network represents a foundational step toward a more connected, patient-centric health data ecosystem. Health Gorilla's Chief Operating Officer, Patrick Lane, attended the event on behalf of the company. 'The CMS-Aligned Network sets the stage for a new era of healthcare,' said Patrick Lane, President and Chief Operating Officer at Health Gorilla. 'As a TEFCA-designated QHIN, we not only support trusted exchange—we deliver deduplicated, normalized, and AI-ready data that patient-facing app developers, payers, and providers need to build tools that actually improve care. That's the difference we bring to this initiative.' Enabling Intelligent Interoperability Across the CMS Health Tech Ecosystem As one of the first operational QHINs and a CMS-recognized data network, Health Gorilla offers: AI-Ready Data at Scale – Health Gorilla transforms raw clinical records into structured, normalized, and deduplicated data—delivered through secure FHIR APIs to power advanced analytics, decision support, and intelligent applications. FHIR-Native, TEFCA-Compliant Exchange – Enabling real-time data sharing across payers, providers, public health agencies, and digital health platforms, all aligned with national policy and technical frameworks. Trusted Infrastructure for Ecosystem Builders – Supporting secure digital identity, provider directory resolution, and consented access to complete patient records—all foundational elements of CMS's long-term vision. By participating in the CMS-Aligned Network, Health Gorilla will also support CMS's ability to engage in trusted exchange by 2026, enabling data access for beneficiaries and providers through modern, secure digital channels. 'In today's landscape, it's not just about connecting data—it's about making it usable, trustworthy, and intelligent,' Lane added. 'We're proud to deliver the infrastructure and the data quality that the CMS Health Tech Ecosystem will rely on.' About Health Gorilla Health Gorilla, a designated QHIN under TEFCA, is a leading national interoperability platform delivering secure, real-time access to structured, AI-ready health data. Health Gorilla supports EHR vendors, value-based care organizations, and digital health innovators with data-driven workflows that enable more informed, connected, and efficient care. Media Contact:Grace VintonAmendola for Health Gorilla203-561-8935gvinton@
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Epic charts growth in provider TEFCA adoption
This story was originally published on Healthcare Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Healthcare Dive newsletter. More than 1,000 hospitals and 22,000 clinics that use Epic are live on the federal government's health information sharing framework, the electronic health record vendor said Monday. Epic plans to transition all of its customers to the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, or TEFCA, by the end of the year, according to Matt Doyle, Epic's Interoperability Software Development Lead. Currently 41% of Epic's customers are live with TEFCA, while 43% are working to implement the data sharing network. The remaining 16% are in planning stages, Doyle said in an emailed statement. TEFCA is a major initiative for healthcare interoperability, setting technical requirements and exchange policies for companies to pull together clinical information sharing networks across the country. The framework went live in December 2023 with five Qualified Health Information Networks, organizations that represent health systems, insurers or health IT vendors that can query and receive information from other networks. Epic's network, Epic Nexus, was one of the original QHINs designated at TEFCA's launch. The government framework lowers barriers to health data sharing, allowing more providers in rural and underserved communities to easily exchange information and improve care, Epic said Monday. The company had previously said last year it would move all of its customers onto TEFCA by the end of 2025. The number of QHINs has also expanded since TEFCA went live. This spring, e-prescribing giant Surescripts' data exchange said it had received QHIN status, bringing the number of designated information sharing networks to nine. Oracle Health, an EHR competitor with Epic, is also looking to earn QHIN designation. The technology giant submitted its application in February. Epic is a major player in healthcare technology as the nation's largest EHR vendor. The vendor controlled more than 42% of the acute care hospital market last year, according to a report published this spring by healthcare IT research firm Klas Research. Recommended Reading Surescripts receives QHIN status under TEFCA Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
