Key Organizations Come Together in Support of Patient-Centered and Interoperable Health IT

NATE and CommonWell Sign Reciprocal Membership Agreement

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 3, 2016) – The National Association for Trusted Exchange (NATE) and CommonWell Health Alliance® today announced that each would become a member of the other’s organization. They have agreed to establish a mutual synergistic and complementary relationship with the goal of enhancing cross-vendor interoperability to better assure provider and patient access to health data regardless of where care occurs.

NATE is a not-for-profit membership association focused on enabling trusted exchange among organizations and individuals with differing regulatory environments and exchange preferences. NATE brings the expertise of its membership and other stakeholders together to address the legal, policy and technical barriers that inhibit health information exchange between HIPAA covered entities and the consumers that they serve.

“The nation’s focus is shifting toward increasing a consumer’s capabilities to exercise their Patient Right of Access under HIPAA and NATE is excited to continue to collaborate with CommonWell and its membership in realizing this important goal. NATE believes that consumers are better partners for providers when they have information symmetry, and that many opportunities exist and will emerge between CommonWell and NATE that will enable the trustworthy sharing of professionally- and patient-generated health information,” said Aaron Seib, NATE CEO.

CommonWell is a not-for-profit trade association devoted to the simple vision that health data should be available to providers and patients regardless of where care occurs. By building the capability to exchange health data into their software, CommonWell members enable providers to work seamlessly within their existing workflow for expeditious, cost-efficient implementation of CommonWell services. CommonWell, together with its service provider and members, is using its diverse, collective experience across the care continuum to break down the barriers that have stood in the way of nationwide data exchange, and is committed to defining and promoting a national infrastructure with common standards and policies.

“CommonWell looks forward to participating in NATE’s efforts to encourage the sharing of information between our members and the patients they serve and is eager to welcome NATE’s contributions to our work. Our organizations agree that patients should be at the center of their health care and that their providers can be empowered to deliver care that is informed by secure and authorized access to that patient’s data, no matter where care has occurred,” said Nick Knowlton, Membership Committee Chair for CommonWell Health Alliance and Vice President at Brightree.

NATE and CommonWell will begin working together immediately. Stakeholders interested in participating in NATE’s work to further consumer-mediated exchange should consider NATE membership. Organizations interested in becoming a member of CommonWell Health Alliance should visit their Membership page for more information.

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About National Association for Trusted Exchange

The National Association for Trusted Exchange (NATE) is a not-for-profit membership association focused on enabling trusted exchange among organizations and individuals with differing regulatory environments and exchange preferences. NATE brings the expertise of its membership and other stakeholders together to find common solutions that optimize the appropriate exchange of health information for greater gains in technology adoption and improvement of patient outcomes. Consistent with NATE’s mission to address the legal, policy and technical barriers that inhibit health information exchange between data holders and healthcare consumers, NATE leads and participates in a number of ongoing and emerging projects focused on exchange via multiple modes of transport, including Direct secure messaging and APIs. NATE’s Blue Button for Consumers (NBB4C) Trust Bundle provides a technical solution to establishing scalable trust among organizations using Direct secure messaging to exchange protected health information between HIPAA covered entities and the consumers that they serve. The NBB4C includes the trust anchors of multiple consumer-facing applications (CFAs) that have elected to adopt a common set of policies and practices that enable consumer mediated health information exchange while upholding personal privacy preferences. Stakeholders interested in participating in NATE’s work to support consumer mediated exchange should consider NATE membership or subscribe to News from NATE on the NATE website at
http://nate-trust.org.

About CommonWell Health Alliance

CommonWell Health Alliance is a not-for-profit trade association of health IT companies working together to create universal access to health data nationwide. CommonWell members represent 72% of the acute care EHR marketi and 37% of the ambulatory care EHR marketii, as well as market leaders and technology innovators supporting care settings such as imaging, perinatal, laboratory, retail pharmacy, oncology, population health, post-acute care, emergency 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 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. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Contacts:
National Association for Trusted Exchange
Meryt McGindley
(310) 345-1960
[email protected]

CommonWell Health Alliance
Berit Mansour, Hill+Knowlton Strategies
(813) 775-6206
[email protected]