The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC) has granted full accreditation status to two beta test participants in its Data Registry Accreditation Program (DRAP). The program establishes requirements for managing registry credentials between health information exchange users, other providers and government agencies, as well as functions of data structure, portability, interoperability, clinical integration, compliance monitoring and reporting.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) authorizes use of Qualified Data Registries to report Clinical Quality Measures associated with the EHR meaningful use program, the Physician Quality Reporting System and other CMS programs. According to EHNAC — which is a voluntary, self governing standards development organization — registries’ role in such programs “spotlights the need to ensure that [data registries] meet the privacy and security obligations expected of all large-scale handlers of protected health information (PHI).”
Alpha II, LLC and FIGmd, Inc. were the first registries to undergo evaluation on their compliance with DRAP criteria and receive full accreditation status for a two-year period, EHNAC reported on Nov. 9.
“We’re confident that the need for registries by institutional and professional providers, specialists and their trade associations, healthcare payers, federal and state governments will explode in the years ahead,” said Lee Barrett, executive director of EHNAC, in a public statement. “To coincide with that, it is imperative to determine that the registries that are being chosen to use have the necessary protections in place to handle the many privacy and security challenges that they will face. When it comes to health data privacy and security, the risks are much too high to assume that everything is up to par — it is much better to ensure it is on the frontend by using an accredited entity that has been reviewed by a third-party.”
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Aside from qualified registries already interacting with CMS, new registries are being established as part of meaningful use Stage 3 rules. They include areas such as immunization, syndromic surveillance, case reporting, public health, clinical data and laboratory. Specialist providers are also creating their own registries dedicated to gather, sharing and reporting on specific conditions and diseases, EHNAC ntoted.
DRAP reviews data registry stakeholders in the areas of privacy, security, mandated standards and key operational functions, according to EHNAC. The program serves as a baseline standard to ensure compliance with CMS requirements and guidelines.
When development of DRAP was announced in May 2015, Barrett said the program would “offer the same level of privacy and security assurances through accreditation that have driven other healthcare sectors for more than 20 years.”
EHNAC deploys site evaluators, who use a rating method to determine overall compliance with criteria for each program. Applicants in candidacy status must meet the requirements of all mandatory criteria and must achieve an overall score of at least 85 percent to achieve full accreditation (subject to commission approval). The site evaluator assigns a 1, 0.5 or 0 rating value to each activity in the criteria, based upon an applicant’s ability to demonstrate compliance.
Date: November 13, 2015