As required by the 21st Century Cures Act, the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has issued for comment a draft “Trusted Exchange Framework” that would bring together the various health information exchanges around the country.

As ONC explained, “Congress identified the importance of interoperability and set out a path for the interoperable exchange of Electronic Health Information. Specifically, Congress directed ONC to `develop or support a trusted exchange framework, including a common agreement among health information networks nationally.’”

In addition to a common agreement, the new draft framework encompasses what ONC is calling Part A and Part B.

◆ “Principles for Trusted Exchange (Part A)—guardrails and general principles that Qualified Health Information Networks (QHINs) and Health Information Networks (HINs) should follow to engender trust amongst Participants and End Users.”