NATE To Transfer Administration Of Nation’s First Trust Bundle For Provider Systems To CAHIE

WASHINGTON, DC and WALNUT CREEK, CA (October 7, 2015) – The California Association of Health Information Exchanges (CAHIE) and the National Association for Trusted Exchange (NATE) are pleased to announce their collaboration to more effectively enable health information sharing among providers and between providers and consumers. As part of the collaboration, NATE will transition administration of NATE’s Provider-to-Provider Trust Bundle to CAHIE. NATE established the Provider-to-Provider Trust Bundle in November 2012 as the first national framework dedicated to facilitating Direct messaging among providers. The trust bundle currently enables exchange among organizations across the nation, including in California, Oregon, Utah, and Alaska. CAHIE will assume operation of the Provider-to-Provider Trust Bundle beginning October 9, 2015, and will complete the transition over the next few months.

“CAHIE’s commitment to enabling appropriate exchange and their experience operating trust bundles was an important contributor to the decision to transition this bundle to their organization. NATE’s leadership is confident that CAHIE will provide the focus and resources that are required to continue to make these solutions an important option in the nation’s tool set, while allowing NATE to focus on enabling exchange with the consumer,” said Aaron Seib, CEO of NATE.

In 2013, California state agencies overseeing HITECH funding transferred governance of statewide HIE to CAHIE. Since that time, CAHIE has successfully initiated a process for voluntary self-governance of information sharing across diverse organizational boundaries through adoption of common consensus policies, technical standards, and business practices. By collaborating with NATE and assuming administration of the Provider-to-Provider Direct messaging trust bundle, CAHIE is able to engage the larger healthcare ecosystem and expand its activities to enable information sharing among providers nationwide. This transition also allows NATE to refine its focus on broadening health information exchange with consumers.

“California has been a core contributor to NATE since its days as the Western States
Consortium, and CAHIE members include inaugural participants in NATE’s Provider-to Provider Trust Bundle,” said Robert Cothren, Executive Director of CAHIE. “This expanded relationship will allow our members to work more closely with NATE to share health information with consumers, while allowing CAHIE to focus on expanding exchange among provider organizations nationwide.”

As part of the agreement, CAHIE will convene a new national forum to establish consensus policies and procedures to manage and govern the new national provider trust bundle. The new trust bundle will use existing CAHIE and NATE policies and procedures as a foundation, and will include current participants in NATE’s Provider-to-Provider Trust Bundle and other interested stakeholders.

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About California Association of Health Information Exchanges

The California Association of Health Information Exchanges (CAHIE) is a not-for-profit public benefit corporation establishing a community of stakeholders dedicated to nabling and promoting the safe and secure sharing of health information. CAHIE members collaborate and educate to address difficult issues in health information exchange,
and establish a framework for voluntary self-governance of health information sharing among providers and diverse provider organizations. For more information about CAHIE: www.ca-hie.org. 

About National Association for Trusted Exchange

The National Association for Trusted Exchange (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 adoption and outcomes Working with a broad set of stakeholders through multiple task forces, crowdsourcing and a call for public comment, NATE was proud to make available the first release of NATE's Blue Button for Consumers (NBB4C) Trust Bundle beginning in 2015. Stakeholders interested in participating in the next phase of NATE’s work in consumer mediated exchange should consider NATE membership or subscribe to news from NATE’s PHR Community.