BOSTON – February 13, 2023 — On February 13, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra recognized CommonWell Health Alliance for its application approval to potentially become one of the Qualified Health Information Networks (QHINs) that will make up the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA).

“CommonWell Health Alliance is proud to move on to the next onboarding step to becoming a designated QHIN. CommonWell’s existing network capabilities are well positioned to support the technical objectives of TEFCA and the industry as a whole,” said Paul L Wilder, executive director of CommonWell Health Alliance. “We congratulate all the other prospective QHINs and look forward to working with them, the ONC, and the Recognized Coordinating Entity to reach those goals and to continue improving health data exchange for the entire country.”

TEFCA—includes a common set of principles, terms and conditions to support the development of a Common Agreement that would take the nationwide exchange of electronic health information (EHI) to the next level. The success of TEFCA will rely, in part, on the participation of well-established Health Information Networks (HINs).

CommonWell is well positioned to qualify as a QHIN since it has built and scaled an existing nationwide health data exchange network utilizing a Record Locator Service. Today that network exchanges roughly 30 million documents each week. It serves more than 34,000 health care organizations and includes almost two hundred million unique individuals.

“As someone who’s been involved in CommonWell since its foundation, I’m proud of the network our members have built and excited for this next stage in our journey,” said Nick Knowlton, chairman of the board of directors for CommonWell Health Alliance, and vice president of strategic initiatives at ResMed. “TEFCA is the future of interoperability and we look forward to ensuring its success for the greater good of patients, providers and the health care industry at large.”

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About CommonWell Health Alliance

CommonWell Health Alliance is a not-for-profit trade association of health care and technology organizations working together to create universal access to health data nationwide. CommonWell members represent more than 20 care settings, including market leaders and technology innovators in acute, ambulatory and post-acute care, patient portals, imaging, population health, emergency services, data locator services and more. CommonWell and its members are committed to the belief that provider access to health data must be built into information technologies at a reasonable cost for use by a broad range of health care providers and the populations and people they serve.

To learn more about CommonWell Health Alliance, visit https://www.commonwellalliance.org/. Engage with CommonWell on our blog, as well as through Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter using the handle, @CommonWell. CommonWell Health Alliance® and the CommonWell Logo are registered trademarks of CommonWell Health Alliance Inc.

CommonWell Health Alliance Press Contact:
Berit Mansour
Phone: (402) 968-8554
Email: berit@commonwellalliance.org