The sign of the same name outside Epic's headquarters in Verona, Wisconsin.
Source: Yiem via Wikipedia CC
Epic Systems Inc., a health care software giant whose technology is used in thousands of hospitals and clinics across the country, said Friday it plans to move all of its customers to a new government-backed medical records exchange by the end of next year.
Epic is one of the groups that helped the federal government create the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, or TEFCA, to provide a legal and technical framework for securely sharing patient data.
TEFCA launched in December, and Epic said the company's goal now is to have the “full Epic community” on the network by the end of 2025. Epic said all customers must commit to the transition a year in advance.
Sending medical records between different hospitals, clinics, and healthcare organizations is incredibly complex. Information is stored in a variety of formats across dozens of different vendors, making it difficult for doctors and other providers to access all the relevant data about their patients. Epic maintains records for more than 280 million individuals in the United States, though patients often have records across multiple vendors.
There are also significant barriers to accessing sensitive information due to privacy protections surrounding patient data. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a federal law that requires patient consent or knowledge for third-party access to information.
Many companies and organizations have formed to try to streamline the exchange of healthcare-related information, but TEFCA is designed to help bring all the different players together. Given Epic’s massive reach and 45-year history in the market, the company’s commitment to TEFCA is likely to boost the exchange’s credibility.
In addition to Epic’s announcement, an interoperability network called Carequality also announced Friday that it is working toward TEFCA compliance. Carequality has Epic as a member.
To join Carequality, organizations are vetted and must agree to adhere to clear “permitted purposes” for sharing patient records. For example, a “treatment” purpose means that the doctor or hospital requesting the data is providing care to the patient in question.
Carequality found itself embroiled in controversy earlier this year after Epic said some network participants were requesting records for reasons that did not fall under the purpose of treatment. Carequality said Friday it was revising its policy to align with TEFCA’s definition of treatment, which could help prevent such conflicts in the future.
“Carequality supports and encourages all appropriate and safe health information exchanges, and to that end participated in the development of TEFCA, and actively supports those participating in TEFCA or seeking to migrate to TEFCA,” Carequality said in a blog post on Friday.
Epic said it applauds Carequality’s decision to align with TEFCA and use the same definition of treatment. The company said in its statement that it will continue to help customers facilitate exchanges through Carequality as they transition to TEFCA.
Epic said Carequality currently connects more than 70% of hospitals, along with more than 50,000 clinics and more than 600,000 caregivers.
“TEFCA is the country’s best opportunity to bring the remaining 30% of U.S. hospitals off the sidelines and build trust between data exchange networks and healthcare organizations,” Epic said.
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