Epic Systems will transition its customers to a new government-endorsed medical records exchange by the end of next year.
"By the end of 2024, our goal is that the full Epic community will have committed to transition to TEFCA with plans to be live by the end of 2025," the EHR vendor wrote in an Aug. 16 news release.
TEFCA, or the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, was launched in December as part of the 2016 21st Century Cures Act mandate. TEFCA aims to establish a unified framework for governance, policy, and technical standards, creating a foundational benchmark for interoperability across nationwide health information networks.
Epic Nexus, a subsidiary of Epic, was among the first to earn the Qualified Health Information Network designation, enabling healthcare providers using Epic to securely exchange information via TEFCA.
In tandem with this announcement, Carequality, an interoperability network that includes Epic as a member, revealed its plans to align with TEFCA. Carequality's network connects more than 600,000 care providers, 50,000 clinics and 4,200 hospitals through more than 45 interconnected networks.
"Carequality supports and encourages all appropriate and secure health information exchange, and to that end has engaged in the development of TEFCA, actively supporting those participating in or transitioning to TEFCA," the organization stated in the release.
Epic highlighted that 100% of its community currently participates in the Carequality framework and assured customers that it will continue to support connectivity through Carequality during the transition to TEFCA to ensure the success of national healthcare interoperability.
This announcement follows earlier controversy when Epic reported that some Carequality network participants were requesting records for purposes beyond the defined scope of treatment.