Health IT, TEFCA TEFCA Government Benefits Determination Implementation is Here!
Jawanna Henry | December 9, 2025
We all know what it’s like to get forms completed with all the right information (and to get it done quickly!), and patients seeking determinations on their eligibility for Social Security Disability Insurance know this all too well. Patients and providers often spend significant time and resources retrieving, reviewing, copying, and transmitting relevant medical records. The Department of Health and Human Services and the Social Security Administration (SSA) are taking on the challenge to improve this process through the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement™ (TEFCA™).
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Interoperability, TEFCA Why TEFCA’s Hardest Problem Isn’t Tech, It’s Trust
Steven Posnack | December 1, 2025
It wasn’t always so, but today we have technology available to exchange health information anywhere there’s an internet connection. What’s slowing us from doing so at nationwide scale is trust. The frictions are human and institutional. They cannot be addressed exclusively with technology.
Let’s look at the policy triangle that affects each network participant’s sharing posture. On the first side, there’s the HIPAA Privacy Rule that permits but does not require responses to network queries for treatment purposes.
TEFCA TEFCA: Accelerating Government Benefits Determination for a Better Tomorrow
Steven Posnack | September 16, 2025
Individuals seeking government benefits such as Social Security Disability Insurance spend a lot of time waiting. In particular, the Social Security Administration (SSA) estimates it takes over 200 days for an initial disability claim to be processed. Part of that time delay includes SSA’s efforts to find out where relevant medical records may be, request them from your health care provider(s), and the time it takes your providers to respond. Ultimately,
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Digital Dividends, Health Data New Data on the Certified Health IT Market Now Available
Chelsea Richwine | September 10, 2025
New data is now available for public use that helps inform the history and current state of the certified health IT market. We explore that in this blog post, which is part of our new Digital Dividends blog series.
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Standards Laboratory Data Standards for Interoperability
Sara Armson | September 5, 2025
In response to a requirement in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, the ASTP/ONC prepared a report on the use of data standards for laboratory data exchange. The report explores data standards adoption and impact at each step of the laboratory workflow, from ordering through sharing the results with patients, providers, public health agencies, and more. This report is grounded in independent research, consultation with subject matter experts, and interviews and input from across the laboratory ecosystem.
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