In July our colleagues at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched an ambitious Health Technology Ecosystem pledge program. The groundswell of energy and enthusiasm for the program has been remarkable, and we’re glad to be their partner. CMS established several pledge categories associated with aspirational criteria included within its CMS Interoperability Framework. This post looks specifically at the similarities and differences between the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement™ (TEFCA™) and the “CMS-Aligned Network” pledge category.

It wasn’t always so, but today we have technology available to exchange health information anywhere there’s an internet connection. What’s slowing us from doing so at nationwide scale is trust. The frictions are human and institutional. They cannot be addressed exclusively with technology. 
Let’s look at the policy triangle that affects each network participant’s sharing posture. On the first side, there’s the HIPAA Privacy Rule that permits but does not require responses to network queries for treatment purposes.