Publications
& Deliverables
CARIN’s vision is to rapidly advance the ability for consumers and their authorized caregivers to easily get, use, and share their digital health information when, where, and how they want to achieve their goals.
The CARIN Alliance provides comments to the federal government on recent proposed regulations updating various interoperability requirements for certain health care entities, focused on advancing consumer’s timely access to their heath information.
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For the first time publicly, we will be talking about the recent Flexpa report on the state of the Patient Access API which includes the CARIN IG for Blue Button with the Flexpa team. We will also hear ‘on the ground’ experiences from consumer-facing applications connecting to the CMS Patient Access API from the bWell Connected Health, OneRecord/Milliman, and The Commons Project application teams. This webinar will be open to both CARIN and non-CARIN members so feel free to publicize it within your network.
Read moreCARIN is publishing a Best Practice Recommendations for HL7® FHIR® Based Deployment for how to improve the current HL7® FHIR® ecosystem to prepare the industry for implementing HL7® FHIR® at scale. We believe if followed, these best practices will dramatically improve FHIR connectivity across the country with provider, payers, and patients.
Read moreThe CARIN Alliance provided comment to ONC and CMS on their provider information blocking disincentive proposed rule with recommendations on its complaint submission process, applicable providers, and prioritization of enforcement activity. In our comments we provided a number of innovative ideas including a ‘complaint clearinghouse’ concept that requests ONC to allow providers and payers an option to submit complaints to an independent third-party who would aggregate those complaints and then submit them as a group. This would avoid individual providers and payers knowing which of their trading partners submitted the complaints but would also identify clear violations of information blocking to advance information sharing with providers, payers, and most importantly patients. See the link above for our full comments.
Read moreSIMSBURY, Conn. and WASHINGTON, D.C. – October 3, 2022 – The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC), a non-profit standards development organization and accrediting body for organizations that electronically exchange healthcare data, and The CARIN Alliance, a collaborative working to advance consumer-directed exchange of health information, today announced the creation of a new CARIN Code of Conduct Accreditation Program (CCCAP).
Read moreWe are excited to announce March 8, 2022 the kick off of our Digital Identity federation proof of concept with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), ONC and CMS as government observers, and multiple private sector entities.
Read moreThe CARIN board and community are happy to announce three new deliverables that can be used by stakeholders to continue to empower individuals with access to more of their own health data with less friction.
Read more"Medicaid Program; Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Reducing Provider and Patient Burden by Improving Prior Authorization Processes, and Promoting Patients’ Electronic Access to Health Information for Medicaid Managed Care Plans, State Medicaid Agencies, CHIP Agencies and CHIP Managed Care Entities, and Issuers of Qualified Health Plans on the Federally-facilitated Exchanges; Health Information Technology Standards and Implementation Specifications"
Read more"The 21st Century Cures Act, the ONC Cures Act Final Rule, and the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access rule have accelerated the ability for an individual to access their personal health information via an application of their choice leveraging HL7® FHIR® Application Programming Interfaces or APIs. To support consumer access, we must ensure that people are who they claim to be so the right information can be shared with the right person at the right time. CARIN supports “person-centric” digital identity credentials to facilitate this ecosystem; an individual has a portable, high-assurance digital identity credential they can use to control when and how their personal information is shared across systems. The CARIN Alliance is working on development of a federated trust agreement to foster and federate trust in digital identity credentials. The federated trust agreement will address standardization and best practices related to security, data protection, authentication, identity proofing, privacy, user experience, interoperability and the conformance regime to ensure these specifications and policy obligations are certified and can be enforced."
Read moreThe CARIN Alliance has accomplished a significant amount of work in that later half of 2020 and we are excited to share with you the details of our progress in providing consumers and their caregivers more data with less friction. Learn more about our efforts, including updates on CARIN IG for Blue Button®, CARIN’s approach to Digital Identity and Federation, the CARIN Code of Conduct and more in our blog post here.
Read moreToday, the CARIN Alliance, a non-partisan, multi-sector alliance focused on providing digital health information to consumers where, when, and how they want to achieve their goals, launched the My Health Application website. The website offers a vendor and platform agnostic location to help consumers select a health care application of their choice to aggregate their clinical, coverage, and payment information. Read the full announcement here.
Read moreToday, the Trump administration finalized two landmark regulations from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), which require providers, health plans and for the first time, government-sponsored health plans, to provide individuals with digital access to their health information through an application or device of their choice. Read the full article here.
Read more"Carequality has brought together the health care industry to overcome the challenge of interoperability by providing a national-level, consensus-built, common interoperability framework to enable exchange between and among health data sharing networks. This framework determines the technical and policy agreements to enable data to flow between and among networks, platforms, and geographies. Carequality provides consumer-facing third-party applications with a voluntary approach to connecting with various data holders via a single, trusted ‘on-ramp’ rather than connecting separately to many disparate systems. The CARIN Alliance has been working with other interested stakeholders on how to advance the ability for consumers and their authorized caregivers to easily get, use, and share their digital health information when, where, and how they want to achieve their goals. The individual right of access under HIPAA and the ONC and CMS proposed rules have helped to accelerate the ability for consumers to get digital access to their health information. We anticipate the final ONC and CMS rules will help lay the groundwork to continue to advance the ability for consumers to access ‘more data with less friction’ in the years ahead. Read the full blog post here."
Read more"The CARIN Alliance is meeting with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Monday, January 27, 2020 at 3:00pm ET in Washington, D.C. Our talking points are outlined here. The meeting attendees are listed here. Click here to read more about our vision for consumer-directed exchange in 2020 and beyond. "
Read moreThe CARIN Alliance is excited to announce the private sector released the CARIN Blue Button® data model and draft implementation guide as part of the White House Blue Button® Developers Conference. The Consumer Directed Payer Data Exchange (CARIN IG for Blue Button®) draft implementation guide includes more than 240 claim data elements that have been agreed on by multiple regional and national health plans. These data elements are included in what we are calling the common payer consumer data set or CPCDS. We have taken these data elements and mapped them to HL7® FHIR® resources to better assist health plans implement the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access proposed rule. Read the full announcement here.
Read moreEvents
HLTH (pronounced “health”) is the leading platform bringing together the entire health ecosystem, focused on health innovation and transformation. From unparalleled events with industry-leading speakers to inspirational digital content and mission-driven initiatives, HLTH creates a unique marketplace for the health community leading the dialogue and development of a better health ecosystem.
Topic: Consumer-mediated Exchange
Topic: CARIN IG testing Sept. 21st - 25th
Topic: Digital Identity in Health Care September 11-12
Topic: Interoperable Digital Identity and Patient Matching
HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) Connectathons feature hands-on FHIR development and testing. Implementers and developers come together to hold technical discussions that advance the FHIR specification, develop FHIR-based solutions, and exchange data with other FHIR interfaces. Connectathons are a great opportunity to work directly with FHIR developers and senior members of the FHIR standards development team.
Join us for 4 fantastic days of best practices, solutions, lessons learned and emerging trends. In addition to sessions on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, standards and more, we're paying special attention to Prior Authorization and Data Exchange solutions as the industry continues to identify new and innovative ways to improve information exchange, enhance care quality, and reduce cost and burden.
Join the ONC Health IT Certification Program for the upcoming quarterly ONC Health IT Certification Program Developer Roundtable. These public meetings are open to all health IT developers, regardless of their participation in the ONC Health IT Certification Program. During these meetings, ONC leads discussions tailored for the health IT developer community on topics such as Certification Program updates, upcoming certification deadlines, and developer requirements.Agenda Forthcoming
CARIN will be at HIMSS! Join us for the CARIN Alliance Open House Tuesday, March 12 • 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
We are thrilled to be hosting ViVE 2024 in Los Angeles, home of a vibrant and diverse healthcare ecosystem. With a wide range of healthcare organizations, facilities, and services including hospitals and medical centers, research and academic institutions, community centers, health tech startups, advocacy groups, mental health clinics, and more, Los Angeles will set the perfect scene for a captivating 4 days full of insightful conversations, networking, and entertainment.
The CARIN community, made up of the CARIN Board, Affiliate Members, and Special Guests, met in-person and virtually to discuss CARIN Alliance Workgroup accomplishments, APIs for transparency, Inferno, caregiver access to data, and updates on the CARIN Code of Conduct.
The CARIN community, made up of the CARIN Board, Affiliate Members, and Special Guests, met in-person and virtually to discuss CARIN Alliance Workgroup accomplishments in 2022 and to review proposed new or upcoming work for 2023.
The CARIN community, made up of the CARIN Board, Affiliate Members, and Special Guests, met virtually to discuss CARIN Alliance Workgroup accomplishments in 2021 and to review proposed new or upcoming work in 2022.
The CARIN community, made up of the CARIN Board, Affiliate Members, and Special Guests, met virtually to discuss CARIN Alliance Workgroup accomplishments in 2020 and to review proposed new work in 2021. The Digital ID and Authentication Roundtable shared observations from their work in process and the community received an update from CMS on recent rulemaking.
The CARIN community, made up of the CARIN Board, Affiliate Members, and Special Guests, met virtually to discuss CARIN Alliance Workgroup accomplishments in 2021 and to review proposed new work in 2021. The Digital ID and Authentication Roundtable shared observations from their work in process and the community received an update from CMS on the recently received proposed rule.
The CARIN community, made up of the CARIN Board, Affiliate Members, and Special Guests, met virtually to discuss CARIN Alliance Workgroup progress and how each of the CARIN efforts are advancing consumer directed exchange. The primary meeting focus was on implementation; CARIN Alliance members shared observations from the field and discussed pilot and partnering ideas that could address implementation challenges and opportunities.
The Q1 2020 Community Meeting was scheduled to coincide with HIMSS, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CARIN community, made up of the CARIN Board, Affiliate Members, and Special Guests, met virtually to discuss the CMS Patient Access and Interoperability rule, the ONC Information Blocking Rule, progress on the Common Payer Consumer Data Set (CPCDS) and the Consumer Directed Payer Data Exchange (CARIN IG for Blue Button®), and ongoing efforts to aid the national response to COVID-19 through consumer engagement with public health agencies. We closed out the day discussing progress on CARIN Alliance Workgroup progress.
On May 14, Leavitt Partners hosted a webinar with policy leaders and others as they discussed the strategic business implications associated with the ONC and CMS interoperability rules for providers, plans, pharma, patients, public health officials, state Medicaid agencies, health technology companies, and other innovators across health care.
The CARIN community, made up of the CARIN Board, Affiliate Members, and Special Guests, met in Baltimore, MD to discuss workgroup progress and 2020 priorities, current federal activity on privacy, security and interoperability, to discuss the use of the CARIN Code of Conduct, opportunities to collaborate on price transparency and digital identity. The day prior to the Community Meeting the CARIN Alliance hosted its first Connectathon. More than 70 participants gathered to discuss and test the CARIN Blue Button 2.0 API Implementation Guide, and the Real-time Pharmacy Benefit Check Implementation Guide.
The CARIN community, made up of the CARIN Board, Affiliate Members, and Special Guests, met in Chicago, IL to discuss workgroup progress, current federal priorities on consumer directed exchange, to discuss the use of the CARIN Code of Conduct and prepare for the HL7 Connectathon testing of the Common Payer Consumer Data Set and Realtime Pharmacy Benefit standards.
Last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services launched Blue Button® 2.0 which allows 44 million Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries digital access to their historical claims information through an application of their choice. This functionality has empowered millions of Medicare beneficiaries to more easily access their health information and provides them an opportunity to work with their physician to make better care decisions for themselves and their family.
The CARIN community, made up of the CARIN Board, Affiliate Members, and Special Guests, met in Seattle, WA to discuss met to discuss workgroup progress, current federal priorities on consumer directed exchange, including updates on the CMS proposed rule, “Patient Access and Interoperability,” and the ONC proposed rule, “21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program,” and to discuss the imminent release of the final version of the CARIN Code of Conduct and Common Payer Consumer Data Set.
The CARIN community, made up of the CARIN Board, Affiliate Members, and Special Guests, met in Washington, D.C. to discuss current federal priorities on consumer directed exchange, including updates on the CMS proposed rule, “Patient Access and Interoperability,” and the ONC proposed rule, “21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program.”
The CARIN community made up of the CARIN Board, General Members, and Special Guests met to discuss Workgroup progress, receive an update regarding the CARIN Code of Conduct, discussed the need for additional group engagement and broadening alliance and community membership, and heard patient stories. Attendees also received an update on end of year progress and 2019 priorities.
The CARIN community, made up of the CARIN Board, General Members, and Special Guests, met to discuss workgroup progress, the challenges currently faced from leading application developers to accessing consumer health records, learn more about consumer attitudes from the recently published HINTS survey, and discuss the launch of the CARIN Code of Conduct. Attendees also discussed the need for additional group engagement and broadening alliance and community membership.
The CARIN community, made up of the CARIN Board, General Members, and Special Guests, met to discuss workgroup progress, the challenges currently faced from leading application developers to accessing consumer health records, learn more about consumer attitudes from the recently published HINTS survey, and discuss the launch of the CARIN Code of Conduct. Attendees also discussed the need for additional group engagement and broadening alliance and community membership.
More information on this session can be found here: www.himssconference.org/session/carin-alliance-advancing-consumer-directed-exchange
The CARIN Community held its first quarter meeting to discuss the ONC draft trusted exchange framework, HIMSS activities, and future collaboration. The group heard patient perspectives and observed a demonstration of a new technology solution for aggregating patient records from Apple.
The CARIN community, made up of the CARIN Board, Affiliate Members, and Special Guests, met to discuss progress on the Trust Framework and Policy Workgroups, hear updates from NIH and the All of Us Research Program, and discuss key questions the group would like to address in 2018.
During a panel at Health 2.0 Ryan Howells, of Leavitt Partners, discusses the Carin Alliance--a campaign that's picked up the mantle of getting consumers access to their health data.
The CARIN community, made up of the CARIN Board, Affiliate Members, and Special Guests, met to discuss progress on the Trust Framework and other key goals for 2017 and hear from ONC National Coordinator, Dr. Rucker as well as a caregiver to remember the central mission of the CARIN Alliance. The CARIN Community will meet next on October 24th in a location that is being finalized.
Ryan joined intrepidNOW to discuss The Carin Alliance and Interoperability. Specifically, we discuss the following with Ryan
The CARIN community, made up of the CARIN Board, Affiliate Members, and Special Guests, met to discuss progress on the Trust Framework and other key goals for 2017 and hear from special guests who are experts in the field of open APIs, authentication, and individual right of access. The CARIN Community will meet next in Chicago on July 27th.
Health Datapalooza brings together a diverse audience of over 1,600 people from the public and private sectors to learn how health and health care can be improved by harnessing the power of data.
The CARIN alliance presented at HX360 event.
The CARIN Community, made up of the CARIN Board, Affiliate Members, and Special Guests, met to discuss priorities for 2017 with the goal of providing the Board with recommendations for a 2017 workplan. The group discussed progress being made on API implementation, consumer app development, and other key trends within government initiatives that happened since the last CARIN meeting in December, 2016. CARIN also reviewed annual anti-trust requirements before laying out 2017 plans.
On May 26, 2016, David Blumenthal, David Brailer, Aneesh Chopra, & Leavitt Partners co-convened a multi-sector group of industry leaders including consumer/patient advocates, providers, purchasers, payers and regulators from across the health care ecosystem to discuss the opportunity to collaborate on ways to move forward on a national strategy to implement consumer-mediated health information management and exchange.
On July 7, 2016, David Blumenthal, David Brailer, Aneesh Chopra, & Leavitt Partners co-convened a multi-sector group of industry leaders including consumer/patient advocates, providers, purchasers, payers and regulators from across the health care ecosystem to continue the conversation on an opportunity to collaborate on ways to move forward on a national strategy to implement consumer-mediated health information management and exchange. As a follow-up to the inaugural meeting on May 26, 2016, this meeting focused on what the alliance is trying to achieve, the barriers that exist in consumer-mediated health information exchange, and what the group can do to remove those barriers. The discussion focused on activities the group can start now to make progress and on the vision for the alliance going forward.