MX January Newsletter

A monthly roundup of news and updates from MX

January 2022 Edition

TEFCA v1 Launches

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced the publication of the Trusted Exchange Framework the Common Agreement (TEFCA) Version 1. This fulfills a major requirement under the 21st Century Cures Act, bipartisan legislation passed in 2016 that sought to increase choice and access for patients and providers.

TEFCA aims to designate a “network of networks” that will connect the patchwork of existing health information networks to create nationwide connectivity for health information sharing. The two main components of TEFCA are:

The Trusted Exchange Framework is a set of non-binding principles to facilitate data-sharing among health information networks.
The Common Agreement is a contract that uses the Trusted Exchange Framework to establish “rules of the road” for different health information networks and their users—such as hospitals, ambulatory practices, clinics, health plans, government, and public health agencies—to securely share clinical information with each other.

Participation in TEFCA is currently voluntary and networks that decide to participate must commit to sharing health information for the following subset of HIPAA permitted purposes: Treatment and Individual Access Services. ONC has indicated this initial limited scope is intended to help networks onboard to TEFCA in an incremental fashion.

MX is reviewing the TEFCA guidance and reference materials. Like other health information organizations, we are evaluating the potential benefits and tradeoffs of participating in TEFCA.

The Sequoia Project will hold a series of informational webinars on TEFCA over the next few weeks. Please be on the lookout for updates in our monthly newsletters.

Participant Bright Spot

Dr. Mike’s Walk-In Clinics has served the Hi-Desert area for more than 20 years with locations in Apple Valley, Victorville, Barstow, and Hesperia. The medical practice group is passionate about making healthcare easy and accessible to the community and provides urgent and primary care services for more than 120 patients daily.

Dr. Mike’s mission of providing easily accessible care was difficult to achieve due to the challenge of obtaining timely and complete medical records and patient histories. They were often forced to turn patients away who needed follow-up care due to the lack of medical information. The staff spent time chasing updates from specialists, calling hospitals for discharge information, and getting signed authorization forms for the hospitals to release patient medical records, which was a burden on both the staff and patients.

To get critical patient records with medical histories quickly, Dr. Mike’s joined the MX network in March 2021. Visit our website to learn how Dr. Mike’s Walk-In Clinics use Manifest MedEx’s longitudinal patient records to improve workflows and care.

News and Events

Public health informatics has played a crucial role during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) have moved quickly to address the need for accurate information and stronger care delivery systems. In the US, there is also the need for better data flow between states. In order to address public health issues, better exchange of information and analyses is essential.

Join Claudia Williams, CEO of Manifest MedEx, at the HIMSS Interoperability and HIE Community Roundtable on February 2nd at 10:30 AM PST. As a panelist, Claudia will join other healthcare leaders in a discussion on Expanding Health Utility Models and Advancing Standards for Public Health. Follow @ManifestMedEx on Twitter for live tweets.

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How To Get Health Data Infrastructure Right For This Moment Of Medicaid Transformation

Today, we are at an inflection point with a 16% increase of Americans enrolled in Medicaid from before the pandemic. California aims to improve the quality of life and health outcomes by offering vulnerable, high-risk populations with enhanced care management through its CalAIM program, the nation’s largest Medicaid Program. Other states are also working towards implementing transformation initiatives. There is a clear need to build health data infrastructure that will enable and drive success. But how can California and other states do this successfully?

Claudia Williams has outlined principles that health policy leaders can follow to make bold and achievable progress with their Medicaid initiatives. Read her full article in HealthAffairs to gain insight to how our Medicaid systems can build the health data infrastructure needed to reach ambitious improvement goals.