EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup-Healtheway-CCHIT Compliance Testing Body Announcement Fact Sheet

Transcription

1 EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup-Healtheway-CCHIT Compliance Testing Body Announcement Fact Sheet October 11, What is the problem the coalition is trying to solve with a compliance testing program? A lack of a uniform set of implementation-level standards, testing specifications and testing policies, currently requires that a custom interface be negotiated and developed from each electronic health record (EHR) to each health information exchange (HIE) and between HIEs. The development of the interface and negotiation of point-to-point agreements represents a significant expenditure of cost and time for all stakeholders (physicians, HIEs, and vendors), limiting adoption and utilization of HIE. There are challenges that limit providers, states, health information organizations (HIOs) and federal agencies from expanding HIE beyond their current geography, organization or domain, including: States are struggling to create the best strategy to promote uptake of HIE while minimizing costs. Federal agencies, private health systems and HIOs need an efficient and proven method to verify that an exchange partner is trustworthy and capable of sharing information securely without custom development. EHR and HIE vendors are using their limited resources to ensure their products meet national EHR certification criteria supporting meaningful use and to promote adoption of their products. Providers are looking for EHR products with connected capabilities and are engaging in HIE, but are not willing to pay a high price for interoperability. The coalition addresses these challenges by setting a unified target for interoperable interfaces. 2. There are already standards and testing programs that exist such as IHE Profiles, Direct Project Protocols and others. Why was the joint effort formed? There are many standards that exist in the marketplace supporting interfaces between EHRs and HIEs, and between HIEs, but that is part of the problem. Because of the many standards and ways of creating connections, each interface is customized. Every HIE and EHR vendor has implemented the standards in different ways. The goal of the joint IWG/eHealth Exchange effort is to remove the optionality and assure that there is common way of building interfaces that can be used across many states and HIEs. The compliance testing program will enable organizations to test once and have a reasonable assurance of

2 being able to securely exchange information with others, without additional custom development and testing. 3. Who are the members of the EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup? States EHR Companies HIEs California Alere Wellogic Alere Wellogic Colorado Allscripts ApeniMED Florida Cerner dbmotion Georgia Data Strategies GE Illinois DeFran Systems GSI Health Kentucky Dr. First Harris Maryland eclinicalworks HealthUnity Michigan emds ICA Missouri Epic InterSystems New Jersey epocrates Med3000 New York First Medical Solutions MedAllies Oregon GE Medicity Utah Greenway Mirth Vermont McKesson Misys Open Source Solutions Virginia MDClick OmniMD NextGen Nortec Software Sage Siemens Optum Orion RelayHealth 4. Who are the ehealth Exchange participants and the technology partners who support them? ehealth Exchange Participants Alabama One Health Record Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Childrens Hospital of Dallas Community Health Information Collaborative (CHIC) Technology Partners Supporting ehealth Exchange ApeniMED Aurion CareEvolution CGI Page 2 of 5 October 11, 2012

3 Conemaugh Health System Department of Defense (DOD) Department of Veterans Affairs Dignity Health Douglas County Individual Practice Association (DCIPA) Eastern Tennessee Health Information Network (ethin) EHR Doctors HealthBridge HEALTHeLINK (Western New York) Idaho Health Data Exchange Inland Northwest Health Services (INHS) Kaiser Permanente Lancaster General Health Marshfield Clinic Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) MedVirginia MultiCare Health System National Renal Administrators Association (NRAA) New Mexico Health Information Collaborative (NMHIC) North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance, Inc. (NCHICA) OCHIN Quality Health Network Regenstrief Institute Social Security Administration (SSA) South Carolina Health Information Exchange (SCHIEx) South East Michigan Health Information Exchange (SEMHIE) Strategic Health Intelligence University of California, San Diego Utah Health Information Network (UHIN) Wright State University Cogon CONNECT CSC Epic Harris K Force MEDecision MedFX Medicity Mirth MobileMD Northrop Grumman OneHealthPort Optum Orion Health SAIC Talis Thompson Vangent Wright State Research Institute Page 3 of 5 October 11, 2012

4 5. Who participated in the coalition which selected CCHIT as the Compliance Testing Body? The EHR HIE Interoperability Workgroup and ehealth Exchange selected CCHIT as the Compliance Testing Body to support the joint program, following a formal joint request for proposal and selection process. The EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup (IWG), led by the New York ehealth Collaborative (NYeC), sought to assure there is a robust testing program for state HIE efforts. Healtheway, in support of the ehealth Exchange, sought to provide a sustainable, robust and highly automated production-level testing program that ehealth Exchange Participants and their technology partners must use as a condition of engaging in the ehealth Exchange. 6. Who is AEGIS, CCHIT s compliance testing program partner? AEGIS.net, Inc. (AEGIS) is a CMMI Maturity Level 3 rated, ISO 9001:2008 certified small business and provider of information technology consulting services to federal civilian, defense and commercial sector clients. AEGIS domains of expertise include health IT and interoperability, regulatory compliance, and logistics. AEGIS is the author of the open source project Developers Integration Lab (DIL SM ), and its predecessor the Interoperability Test Lab, a testing platform solution for health information exchange compliance, interoperability, and compatibility testing. 7. How and when will the testing program be available? The testing program will be piloted and quickly followed with an initial wave of testing of the first set of systems and HIE implementations in late The program is targeted to be available on a wide-scale basis in early Thirty-six of the country s most established vendors have agreed through a memorandum of understanding to comply with the coalition s testing requirements. States and the ehealth Exchange will establish a list of preferred vendors that meet the criteria and will market the value of using compliant systems to the healthcare provider community and within the industry. 8. How can other states, HIEs, health systems EHR vendors, and HIE vendors join the effort? The ehealth Exchange and EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup have a joint Testing Task Group to facilitate development of the testing artifacts used in the compliance testing Page 4 of 5 October 11, 2012

5 program. This Task Group welcomes all HIEs, states, and EHR, HIE and HIT vendors, to be a part of the mission of reducing the barriers of adoption of health data exchange services. For more information, including access to the test specifications developed for the Compliance Testing Program: State HIEs, EHR, and HIE vendors are welcome to join the EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup by requesting membership at: interopwg.org To join the ehealth Exchange, an organization must satisfy the eligibility criteria, submit a completed application and signed legal agreement to Healtheway, then successfully complete required testing with the Compliance Testing Body. For more information, contact: admin@healthewayinc.org. 9. How is this testing different than Meaningful Use Certification that the ONC has mandated? The program is aligned with and builds upon the EHR certification criteria and standards developed by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) and adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). This program extends to a variety of health IT systems and HIE participants. The ONC HIT Certification Program is specific to EHRs used by physicians and other eligible ambulatory care providers and by hospitals. The Compliance Testing Program was formed by a public/private coalition and is voluntary. The ONC HIT Certification program developing ONC criteria and test methods is governed by federal statute and rulemaking. There are no meaningful use federal financial incentives or penalties for Medicare or Medicaid providers associated with participation in the Compliance Testing Program. 10. How does the compliance testing program align with the national HIT strategy? The coalition designed the compliance testing program to align with and compliment the national strategy established by ONC. To that end, the Compliance Testing Program: Includes a technology certification component, building upon the EHR certification program established by ONC to support meaningful use Utilizes an accredited and authorized testing laboratory and certification body, leveraging the strategy implemented for the EHR certification program Verifies conformance with national standards Leverages national standards and work from the ONC Standards & Interoperability (S&I) Framework Initiatives Page 5 of 5 October 11, 2012