"Dovetailing with the recent efforts by ONC to enable interoperability and demonstrate privacy and security of data exchange, TNAP was developed to address current federal security and privacy compliance mandates by leveraging existing frameworks and best practices (i.e., HIPAA, ARRA, HITECH, ACA, NIST and others) while supporting underlying enabling technologies," said Lee Barrett, Executive Director and CEO of the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC), one of the organizations that facilitates the initiative. "We now invite healthcare stakeholders to offer commentary and feedback that will guide the collaborative as we finalize the criteria for this new accreditation program."  

TNAP will provide third-party accreditation for healthcare exchange entities such qualified health information networks (QHINs), health information exchanges, accountable care organizations, data registries, participants and others. The proposed criteria were developed to assess an organization's ability to demonstrate alignment with the TEFCA requirements, comply with federal privacy and security requirements as well as review technical performance, business processes, and resource management. 
 
"This comprehensive third-party review will offer an additional level of confidence to data exchange participants with its focus on regulatory requirements, business/operational metrics and best practices for organizations wishing to function as a QHIN or other exchange participant," added Barrett. "In today's complex healthcare ecosystem an organization will need to take the necessary steps to ensure stakeholder trust and assure customers that they're adhering to the latest best practices and standards in privacy and security." 

During the 60-day public review period, all interested stakeholders are encouraged to provide TNAP with opinions, comments and suggestions to determine the necessity, appropriateness and workability of the proposed criteria. As ONC continues to evaluate comments and provides additional guidance and clarifications regarding TEFCA, the TNAP collaborative will continue to monitor these further developments and continue to enhance and revise TNAP as appropriate. The TNAP v.1.0 is scheduled to be available for final release later this year, pending review of the comments received from the public.

Visit www.ehnac.org to review the TNAP criteria and submit feedback during this comment period through the Criteria Comment Form.