HIE Accreditation Program Finalized

The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission has finalized criteria for its new accreditation program for health information exchanges.

The criteria received industry input during two 60-day comment periods. The second comment period followed changes to previously drafted criteria to reflect new state and federal initiatives, such as the meaningful use final rules. The accreditation program is designed for all entities that promote data sharing across multiple independent stakeholders.

Industry sponsored EHNAC, based in Farmington, Conn., accredits a range of health care transactions processors including claims clearinghouses, value-added networks, health information exchanges, financial networks and management service organizations, among others. To be accredited, an organization must meet certain performance benchmarks in such areas as privacy and security, technical performance, business practices and organizational resources.

More information is available at ehnac.org.

--Joseph Goedert