Federal agencies quietly joined health data superhighway governing council

Officials with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Social Security Administration and Indian Health Service were added to the governing council for a federal initiative designed to facilitate the exchange of health data in June, Nextgov/FCW has learned. 

The council’s recent additions highlight how agencies are increasingly eyeing participation in the initiative — known as the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, or TEFCA — to obtain digital health records that would help quickly process disability claims, track consumer safety issues and improve medical care.

The new federal representatives on the TEFCA governing council are:

• Brien Lorenze, executive director of CPSC
• Sean Fry, executive advisor of health information technology and electronic records in SSA’s office of disability policy
• Bobby Villines, acting director of the division of information technology within IHS’ office of information technology

The TEFCA website was updated Monday afternoon to list the governing council members, including federal representatives, after Nextgov/FCW inquired about new representatives. The governing council saw the federal members added in June, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

The governing council is tasked with monitoring health data exchanges, reviewing potential updates to the superhighway and helping resolve contentious cases of health information sharing, according to TEFCA rules.

The rules state that up to five individuals affiliated with a federal agency can sit on the governing council. The governing council can be expanded to include more federal representatives. 

The ability for members to vote on the governing council depends on whether their agency is “actively involved in or enabling TEFCA exchange,” according to the rules. CPSC’s representative is a nonvoting member on the governing council.

How the agencies are leveraging TEFCA

The three agencies with new representatives on the TEFCA governing council are actively eyeing the health data sharing initiative to support agency procedures. Some are already receiving data through TEFCA.

In February, SSA announced it joined TEFCA to speed up disability benefits processing by more than 50% in some cases. Health systems using Epic electronic health records have already begun to digitally send SSA health information through TEFCA. 

SSA has long pulled medical records through other health data superhighways known as Carequality and eHealth Exchange, but TEFCA has enabled additional hospitals and clinics using Epic electronic health records to send health information to the federal government, according to Epic. SSA specifically chose eHealth Exchange as its Qualified Health Information Network, or QHIN, which is essentially an onramp to the broader TEFCA superhighway. 

An SSA spokesperson did not return a request for comment on the agency’s participation in the governing council.

In July, CPSC announced it will leverage a QHIN, Konza Health, to update its National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, or NEISS, a tracking system for consumer product-related injuries. The new system would allow hospitals in all 50 states to share vital medical information with CPSC and speed up the detection of hazardous consumer products, the agency said in a press release.

“As CPSC modernizes [NEISS to] NEISS-R, interoperability with the nation's health information infrastructure has become increasingly important. TEFCA provides a common framework for trusted health information exchange that can support authorized public health activities while promoting privacy, security, and standardized data exchange,” a CPSC spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW. “CPSC's participation reflects the mutual recognition that TEFCA and NEISS-R have complementary public health objectives and that collaboration benefits both efforts.”

CPSC’s partnership with Konza Health has garnered controversy from the likes of Rachel Maddow and consumer advocacy groups because it may sweep up personally identifiable information, such as names, addresses and birthdates, according to a KFF Health report. 

Hospital technologists are also wary about the initiative because Konza Health officials have described medical record sharing as mandatory or else hospitals could be charged with violating federal information blocking rules, the report says.

The HHS office overseeing TEFCA invited CPSC to recommend a federal representative on the governing council in April. 

IHS became the first federal agency to join TEFCA in December 2024 with eHealth Exchange serving as its QHIN onramp. As a health care provider to federally recognized tribes, IHS is using TEFCA to improve care coordination between agency and nonagency medical providers.

“The patients we serve are commonly shared with private sector, academic, or other federal healthcare providers. As such, the IHS has a clear interest in modernization and optimization of interoperability and coordination of care, and having a seat and a voice on the TEFCA Governing Council supports that interest,” an IHS spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW.

In addition to federal representatives, the TEFCA governing council has added several health IT industry bigwigs, including Alex Mugge and Hans Buitendijk of Oracle and Matt Becker of Kno2, Nextgov/FCW has learned.