CommonWell Health Alliance, an industry trade association comprised of large electronic health record (EHR) software companies and other health IT vendors, is pushing forth with efforts to expand its spectrum, while adding new members.
The same week it announced the additions of a trio of vendors, Aprima, CareCloud and OBIX by Clinical Computer Systems, Inc. to the alliance, CommonWell also announced that it is adding services for its members. At least one member of the alliance is allowing its members to enter into free service agreements with it. This is an extension of what Cerner announced a few weeks ago. Basically, those who are in the networks of athenahealth and Cerner will be able to receive CommonWell interoperability services for free. Those services include patient identification and linking, record location and retrieval, certification and authentication, and consent management. Other vendors, CPSI, Greenway and McKesson, are also signing member service agreements have not disclosed what they are doing with costs.
Jeremy Delinsky, Chairman of the Board at CommonWell Health Alliance and CTO at athenahealth, said in a statement: “Today, we are thrilled to announce a nationwide network to manage clinical information, promote greater access to health data and improve care across the continuum. By making these services broadly available, CommonWell is empowering its members and their clients to facilitate better care coordination across disparate EHRs and care settings.”
During its initial pilot phase, more than 20,000 people actively chose to connect their records through CommonWell, the alliance says. The alliance is making a signficant push to increase the spectrum. Cerner is offering the services for free for three years. It's unclear if the others are on board with that time frame.
