New program aims to ensure identities in exchanging health data

The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission, which accredits industry stakeholders for meeting best business practices that include privacy and security protections, now is focusing on a new accreditation program to ensure identity verification and authentication of stakeholders conducting health information exchange, as well as supporting blockchain and cloud hosting services.

Organizations collaborating with EHNAC to develop the new Trusted Exchange Accreditation Program include the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange, SAFE-BioPharma Association, eHealth Initiative and the EP3 Foundation which facilitates secure identity to support data sharing for research and clinical trials without revealing personal or sensitive information.

The goal of Trusted Exchange is to offer the industry third-party accreditation for a wide range of healthcare entities.

These include health information networks, health information exchanges, accountable care organizations, data registries, insurers, providers, e-prescribing vendors, financial services firms, management services organizations, medical billers, outsource firms, electronic health record and practice management vendors, and third-party administrators, among others.

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Collaborators of the Trusted Exchange Accreditation Program will form a steering committee of 10 to 15 public and private stakeholders across a range of sectors and specialties.

“We invite the healthcare industry to join us in working to establish this important new accreditation program that will continue the much-needed focus on interoperability as well as assure a trusted environment where privacy and security requirements are maintained,” says Lee Barrett, executive director at EHNAC. “The formation of this industry collaboration leveraging many of the excellent frameworks and best practices already deployed is an important first step in making this a reality.”