Dive Brief:
- Oracle Health has received Qualified Health Information Network status under the federal government’s health data sharing framework, the technology giant said Thursday.
- The designation allows the Oracle Health Information Network to transfer health information between providers, payers and government agencies through the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, or TEFCA. The HHS created the framework to facilitate the exchange of health records.
- Eleven data exchanges have now received QHIN status, more than double the number that were recognized when TEFCA went live at the end of 2023.
Dive Insight:
TEFCA, a major government initiative to boost healthcare data interoperability, sets technical requirements and rules to guide information exchange.
QHINs are the “backbone for network connectivity” to support data exchange, according to the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. These networks represent health systems, insurers and health IT vendors, and can query and receive information from other networks after they’re accepted, complete onboarding and pass security and technology checks.
Oracle said it would apply to become a QHIN about a year ago. Since then, data exchanges run by e-prescribing giant Surescripts and ambulatory electronic health record vendor eClinicalWorks have been designated QHINs.
The Trump administration has also launched another initiative to bolster health data sharing.
The CMS’ Health Tech Ecosystem, announced this summer, focuses on encouraging adoption of a voluntary information sharing blueprint as well as increasing availability of digital health tools through partnerships between dozens of healthcare and technology companies. Oracle has signed onto that pledge.
The plan has an important goal, given the healthcare sector’s long challenges with interoperability, experts say. But the announcement had few details, high standards and a short timeline before the Trump administration said it would start showing results — by early 2026, they noted.
Still, Humana and Epic — a major EHR competitor to Oracle — rolled out an early result of the CMS ecosystem earlier this week: new data sharing features to speed patient check-in and coverage verification.
