Surescripts Health Information Network Advances to Candidate Phase in Process to Become a Qualified Health Information Network

Arlington, Va. – February 20, 2024 – Surescripts Health Information Network LLC™, a subsidiary of Surescripts® has advanced to the Pre-Production Testing and Project Plan Completion phase as a candidate Qualified Health Information Network ^TM(QHIN^TM).

“With more than two decades of experience collaborating across the healthcare ecosystem, Surescripts remains committed to leading innovations that make health intelligence sharing simpler,” said Tara Dragert, Chief Product Officer, Surescripts and President, Surescripts Health Information Network, LLC. “Through Surescripts Health Information Network, we are eager to continue working with The Sequoia Project and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in the Pre-Production Testing and Project Plan Completion phase to support the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement^SM (TEFCA^SM).

“This milestone is particularly exciting as it enables Surescripts Network Alliance participants—health systems, pharmacies, health plans and technology vendors—to begin planning and taking action alongside us as part of the TEFCA onboarding process, bringing us even closer to the kind of interoperability that fades into the background because it works seamlessly across healthcare,” said Dragert.

As an interoperability pioneer for more than two decades, Surescripts turns data into intelligence that reaches healthcare professionals when and where they need it most. In 2022, Surescripts exchanged more than 21.7 billion transactions, including 2.5 billion medication histories and 1.25 billion links to clinical documents, reaching more than 2 million healthcare professionals and organizations and virtually every U.S. patient.

In April 2023, Surescripts announced its intent to become a QHIN under TEFCA in support of advancing nationwide interoperability of electronic health information, as laid out in the 21st Century Cures Act. Then in November 2023, Surescripts moved forward in the process of becoming a QHIN through its subsidiary Surescripts Health Information Network LLC™ submitting its application for review by The Sequoia Project, the Recognized Coordinating Entity® (RCE^TM) designated by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

Background:

Surescripts was a member of the Common Agreement Workgroup, convened by The Sequoia Project in 2020 and 2021, and provided input into the drafting of the Common Agreement that establishes the infrastructure model and governing approach for securely sharing basic clinical information between networks.

Additionally, Surescripts technology, including Surescripts Record Locator & Exchange, is based on the HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard that helps clinicians find and retrieve clinical documents exchanged via Carequality—a nationwide, consensus-based interoperability framework that enables information exchange among health data sharing networks.

Surescripts has been a leader in the adoption of the FHIR standard, participating in HL7 accelerators, including the Argonaut Project, the DaVinci Project and FAST, aiming to meet the interoperability goals in the 21st Century Cures Act.

Learn more about how Surescripts is simplifying the path to nationwide interoperability.