Data Strategy Briefing — December 12, 2023

Executive briefing: On 12 December 2023 the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and The Sequoia Project designated the first six Qualified Health Information Networks (QHINs) under the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA). Designated QHINs can now complete production testing and begin onboarding participants in 2024, creating a federally endorsed backbone for nationwide data exchange.

Key interoperability checkpoints

• Participation strategy. Evaluate which designated QHIN aligns with organisational geography, capabilities, and pricing for connecting to TEFCA exchange.
• Contract readiness. Review common agreement terms, flow-down requirements, and privacy policies before signing participant agreements.
• Technical alignment. Assess network connectivity, FHIR roadmap commitments, and message orchestration services offered by each QHIN.

Operational priorities

• Implementation planning. Map testing milestones, certificate management, and production cutover activities to align with QHIN onboarding schedules.
• Policy harmonisation. Update information sharing policies, patient access statements, and breach notification procedures to meet TEFCA participation requirements.
• Metrics and SLAs. Establish dashboards for exchange volume, response times, and availability to monitor QHIN performance.

Enablement moves

• Engage multi-state stakeholders—clinical, payer, and public health—to coordinate TEFCA onboarding timelines.
• Integrate TEFCA readiness into interoperability steering committees alongside HTI-1 and CMS API programmes.

Sources

• ONC press release on first QHIN designations
• TEFCA RCE announcement detailing designated QHINs

Zeph Tech steers TEFCA adoption with QHIN selection scorecards, onboarding playbooks, and exchange performance monitoring.

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