eHealth Exchange waives HIE fees to promote interoperability

State and local health information exchanges that agree to a public health use case with eHealth Exchange or the new Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement program by April 30 will receive three years of annual fees waived.

The Qualified Health Information Network is pushing for more public health use cases under TEFCA, especially among those state, tribal, local, and territorial public health agencies.

While many of its network members are focused on public health, eHealth Exchange needs early adopters for the TEFCA public health use cases to support the realization of the nascent federal framework, Jay Nakashima, executive director of eHealth Exchange, said in an announcement Tuesday .

“Linking public health with current national health data sharing efforts will create a healthier patient population in the U.S.,” he said.

As part of the draft TEFCA 2.0 update, The Sequoia Project, ONC’s recognized coordinating entity for TEFCA, is proposing long-awaited electronic case reporting procedures, already required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for eligible hospitals since 2022 and doctors.

“Based on the extensive experience of our current members, we know that electronic health data exchange can have a significant impact on electronic case reporting and public health tracking,” Nakashima added.

Approximately 80 million electronic case reports submitted by providers to state, tribal, local and territorial agencies across the country today are conducted through eHealth Exchange, according to the QHIN.

HIEs are eligible for the eHealth Exchange incentive program if they meet these criteria:

• By April 30, commit to sharing clinical data for an agreed public health use case via eHealth Exchange.
• Start testing before June 30.
• Go live in production before December 30 and exchange public health data with other participants in the eHealth Exchange or TEFCA QHINs.

“By providing financial incentives to current and potential members, we will help accelerate further adoption of essential public health data across the healthcare community,” Nakashima said.

Andrea Fox is editor-in-chief of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.