Verato to Lead Two Sessions on Trusted Identity at 2026 Civitas Networks for Health® Annual Conference

Sessions will address how trusted identity helps health information exchanges and their partners meet interoperability mandates while safely extending data sharing

MCLEAN, Va., Sept. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Verato® today announced it will lead two sessions on trusted identity for rural health transformation and interoperability at the 2026 Civitas Networks for Health® Annual Conference, taking place September 22-24 in Arlington, Va.

Health information exchanges, public health agencies, and community-based organizations are being asked to connect more data across more partners, even as that data remains fragmented across independent systems, organizations, and geographies. Without a reliable way to recognize the same patients and providers across organizations, records can't be matched, data is untrustworthy, and downstream care and analytics suffer. Verato's two Civitas sessions will examine how a shared, trusted identity layer extends accurate identity across organizational boundaries to support interoperability and rural health transformation.

Who Is the Patient? Getting Identity Right for Rural Health Transformation

On September 22, from 4:15 to 5:00 p.m. ET, Verato will host a panel discussion, moderated by Joe Hickey, vice president of provider markets at Verato. Hickey will be joined by Randy Farmer, CEO of Vermont Information Technology Leaders (VITL), and Dr. Jan Lee, CEO of Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN).

The panel will highlight the foundation needed for rural health transformation and address how interoperability and funding mandates – such as the 21st Century Cures Act, Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), and Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) – are pushing rural health information exchanges and health systems to extend trusted identity infrastructure to new partners, and what it will take to build that infrastructure at scale.

"Excellence in patient matching is critical to our success," Farmer said. "It is at the heart of delivering on our promise to care providers, payers, patients, and other stakeholders. We could not meet our mission or serve our community as a trusted and strategic business partner without an outstanding patient matching solution."

"Accurate identity matching is foundational to interoperability and to every data service based on aggregation of otherwise fragmented data," Lee said. "You can build a lot of redundancy into a technology stack, but the identity matching layer has no redundancy. It has to be right and it has to be reliable and everyone has to trust it."

The Living Network: Identity, Workflow, and the Future of Interoperability

On September 23 from 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. ET, Verato will host a breakfast workshop featuring Martin Hougaard, vice president, product marketing at Verato; Dan Chavez, executive director of Serving Communities Health Information Organization (SCHIO); and Michael Berger, innovation leader at the New York eHealth Collaborative.

As health information exchanges, payers, and providers connect more data across organizational lines, each partner needs a trusted way to confirm it is exchanging information about the same patient or provider. Verato Identity Network™ (VIN) provides that foundation as a shared, neutral identity layer that lets organizations recognize the same person across partners without building a new integration for each connection. The session will examine how VIN helps partners reduce mismatches across referrals, lab orders, care coordination, and patient access; accelerate connections among HIEs, payers, and providers; and lower the cost of meeting TEFCA and 21st Century Cures Act requirements.

"For Health Information Organizations (HIOs), interoperability has never been just about moving data. The real test is whether participants across the healthcare ecosystem can trust that they are talking about the same person," Chavez said. "As HIOs and Health Data Utilities (HDUs) expand interoperability beyond traditional healthcare, trusted identity becomes community infrastructure. A shared identity layer is what allows us to extend that certainty across every participant in the network."

Connect with Verato at Booth #102

Throughout the conference, attendees are invited to meet the Verato team at booth #102 to learn more about how Verato's next-generation identity solutions create a trusted foundation for more connected data, stronger collaboration, and better health outcomes.

About Verato 
Verato®, the identity intelligence company, solves the problem that drives everything else—Knowing Who Is Who™. Proven in healthcare. Trusted everywhere.

Verato MDM Cloud™ delivers unprecedented identity intelligence by combining industry-leading identity accuracy with enterprise-wide data mastering to unify, enrich, and manage identities across systems of insight, engagement, and record—unlocking more accurate, actionable data insights.

With complete, accurate, and trusted identity intelligence, Verato improves business results by powering exceptional consumer experiences and patient outcomes, fueling business growth, accelerating AI readiness, boosting productivity, and reducing costs across every business process that consumes identity. For more information, visit verato.com.

MEDIA CONTACT: 
Supreme Communications for Verato
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SOURCE Verato