Epic Systems customers will all use TEFCA to exchange health records

Epic Systems, the health-care software giant whose technology is utilized in hundreds of hospitals and clinics across the country, said on Friday that it’s planning on moving all of its customers to a recent government-backed medical records exchange by the top of next 12 months.

Epic is one in all the groups that is been helping the federal government establish the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, or TEFCA, to offer a legal and technical framework for securely sharing patient data.

TEFCA launched in December, and Epic said the corporate’s goal is now to have the “full Epic community” survive the network by the top of 2025. All customers must be committed to the transition a 12 months earlier, Epic said.   

Sending medical records between different hospitals, clinics and health-care organizations is notoriously complicated. Information is stored in quite a lot of formats across dozens of various vendors, making it difficult for doctors and other providers to access all of the relevant data on their patients. Epic houses records for greater than 280 million individuals within the U.S., though patients often have records across multiple vendors.  

There are also significant hurdles to accessing sensitive information as a result of the privacy protections surrounding patient data. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, is a federal law that requires a patient’s consent or knowledge for third-party access.

Several corporations and organizations have formed to try to streamline health-care information exchange, but TEFCA was designed to assist bring all the varied players together. Due to Epic’s dramatic reach and its 45-year history available on the market, the corporate’s commitment to TEFCA will likely bolster the exchange’s credibility.

Along with Epic’s announcement, an interoperability network called Carequality, also said on Friday that it’s working to align with TEFCA. Carequality includes Epic as a member. 

To affix Carequality, organizations are vetted and should conform to abide by clear “permitted purposes” for the exchange of patient records. As an example, the “treatment” permitted purpose means the doctor or hospital requesting the info is providing care to the patient in query.

Carequality found itself embroiled in controversy earlier this 12 months after Epic said some network participants were requesting records for reasons that did not fall under the treatment purpose. Carequality said Friday that it’s revising its policy to align with TEFCA’s definition of treatment, which could help prevent such clashes in the long run. 

“Carequality supports and encourages all appropriate and secure health information exchange, and to that end has engaged in the event of TEFCA, and is actively supporting those participating in TEFCA or in search of to migrate to TEFCA,” Carequality said in a blog post Friday.

Epic said it commends Carequality’s decision to align with TEFCA and use the identical definition of treatment. The corporate will proceed to assist customers facilitate exchanges through Carequality as they transition to TEFCA, the statement said. 

Epic said that Carequality currently connects greater than 70% of hospitals, together with over 50,000 clinics and greater than 600,000 care providers.

“TEFCA is the nation’s best opportunity to get the remaining 30% of U.S. hospitals off the sidelines and reinforce trust between data exchange networks and care organizations,” Epic said.

WATCH: FDA’s push to lower sodium in food