A sign of the same name outside Epic’s headquarters in Verona, Wisconsin.
Source: Yiem, via Wikipedia CC
Epic Systems, a major health care software company whose technology is used by thousands of hospitals and clinics across the U.S., said Friday it plans to move all of its customers to a new government-backed medical record exchange system by the end of next year.
Epic is one of the organizations helping the federal government establish the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), which provides a legal and technical framework for securely sharing patient data.
TEFCA will start in December, and Epic will said The company’s current goal is to have the “full Epic community” running on its network by the end of 2025. Epic said all customers should commit to the transition a year ahead of schedule.
Transmitting medical records between different hospitals, clinics, and healthcare organizations is notoriously complicated. Information is stored in various formats and across dozens of different vendors, making it difficult for doctors and other healthcare providers to access all of a patient’s relevant data. Epic stores the records of more than 280 million individuals in the United States, but patient records often span multiple vendors.
Additionally, privacy protections surrounding patient data present significant hurdles to accessing sensitive information. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a federal law that requires patient consent or knowledge for third-party access.
Several companies and organizations have been formed to streamline medical information exchange, but TEFCA was designed to bring the various parties together. Given Epic’s massive influence and 45 years of history in the market, the company’s commitment to TEFCA will help to bring credibility to information exchange.
In addition to Epic’s announcement, an interoperability network called Carequality has Also The company announced Friday that it’s working with TEFCA, which also counts Epic as a member.
To join Carequality, organizations must undergo a vetting and agree to adhere to clear “permitted purposes” for exchanging patient records. For example, the permitted purpose of “treatment” means that the doctor or hospital requesting the data is providing treatment to the patient in question.
Care Quality was embroiled in controversy earlier this year when Epic announced that some of its network participants were requesting records for reasons that didn’t qualify as medical treatment. Care Quality said Friday it would revise its policies to align with TEFCA’s definition of medical treatment, which may prevent such clashes in the future.
“Care Quality supports and encourages all appropriate and safe health information exchange, which is why we were involved in the development of TEFCA and actively support those who are participating in TEFCA and those who want to transition to TEFCA,” Care Quality said in a blog post on Friday.
Epic said in a statement that it applauds CareQuality’s decision to align with TEFCA and adopt the same definition of care, and that it will continue to help facilitate information exchanges with CareQuality as it transitions to TEFCA.
Epic says Carequality currently works with more than 70 percent of hospitals, more than 50,000 clinics and more than 600,000 health care providers.
“TEFCA represents the nation’s best opportunity to bring the remaining 30 percent of U.S. hospitals off the sidelines and strengthen data exchange networks and trust among healthcare organizations,” Epic said.
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