ZeOmega's HealthUnity® Platform Achieves Compliance Certification to Meet U.S. Health Interoperability Standards

PLANO, Texas, Aug. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ZeOmega Inc., an industry leader of integrated, whole-person population health management (PHM) solutions, has achieved certification from Drummond Group for its interoperability platform, HealthUnity®.  Drummond's Payer and Patient Access Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (FHIR®) Application Programming Interface (API) certification is powered by Touchstone and is the only independent testing and certification program certifying interoperability and compliance using the standards established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule.

The certification confirms ZeOmega's HealthUnity interoperability platform is fully compliant with the HL7 U.S. Drug Formulary FHIR® Implementation Guide referenced in the Patient Access API requirements of the Final Rule, CMS-9115-F. Ultimately, Drummond's rigorous testing and certification process attest to HealthUnity's ability to:

• Provide confidence in the system's conformance to FHIR standards and applicable use cases.
• Rapidly scale connectivity through validated APIs and avoid custom integration efforts.
• Maintain update-to-date conformance with evolving standards and requirements.
• Support regulatory enforcement activities.

Achieving Drummond's certification is a great accomplishment for ZeOmega considering the challenges associated with tackling true interoperability. Getting end-to-end platforms to talk to each other without delay, confusion, or inaccuracy is difficult and nuanced.  As a result of completing Drummond's testing, other applications and payer systems can now be assured that CMS Patient Access API solutions leveraging the HealthUnity platform are conforming to an industry-recognized and trusted reference specification. 

"Without a formal testing and certification program, there is an increased risk that payers, providers, and applications will not truly interoperate or will require additional integration efforts to interoperate in real-world settings," said Brian Gibb, Drummond Group president and CEO. "Each payer's platform across the nation comes with its own unique clinical terminologies, interpretation of technical specifications, and functions that need to make sense to other systems. Without trusted testing from neutral entities to provide validation, there is no reference point for systems to prove their compliance with federal interoperability requirements. That's why we created the Payer and Patient Access FHIR® Certification program. ZeOmega's HealthUnity interoperability platform has demonstrated full compliancy with the HL7 U.S. Drug Formulary FHIR® Implementation Guide." 

As an established, independent certification organization, Drummond has specialized in healthcare IT for more than 20 years and recently joined an innovative partnership with AEGIS.net (AEGIS), a trusted advisor and leader in information technology and professional consulting services to federal civilian, defense, and commercial sector clients.

"We are proud HealthUnity is one of the first interoperability platforms to be certified under this new program" says Tony Sheng, Vice President of Interoperability Solutions for ZeOmega. "We strongly believe in the value of independent testing for achieving secure and scalable interoperability, and we are excited to provide our clients with the connectivity, compliance, and cost-saving benefits of achieving this certification."

According to CMS.gov, on July 1, 2021, two of the policies from the May 2020 Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule went into effect. On the same day, CMS also began enforcing requirements for certain payers to support Patient Access and Provider Directory APIs.

About Drummond Group
Drummond Group LLC (www.drummondgroup.com) offers comprehensive compliance, security, risk management, surveillance, and education services to healthcare, financial and other regulated industries. As an Authorized Certification Body (ACB) and an Accredited Test Lab (ATL) within the Office of the National Coordinator Health IT Certification Program, Drummond specializes in working with health IT developers to test and/or certify their software for use by healthcare providers in regulatory programs.

The Drummond Payer and Patient Access FHIR® Certification program is a private, voluntary program and is not approved, endorsed, or authorized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services or the Department of Health and Human Services.

About ZeOmega and HealthUnity
ZeOmega empowers health plans and other risk-bearing organizations with the industry's leading technology for simplifying population health management. HealthUnity is ZeOmega's comprehensive interoperability platform supporting the next generation of health-value products. HealthUnity fully supports the required technical standards, data sets, implementation guides, and use cases for interoperability and exceeds requirements of the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule. The powerful platform empowers health plans to capitalize on their existing infrastructure investments by adapting their data and workflows to align with technologies required to participate in the 21st century healthcare ecosystem using universal, real-time connectivity. As a leader in the population health management arena, ZeOmega serves as a true partner for clients, offering flexible deployment and delivery models. By consistently meeting customer expectations and project benchmarks, ZeOmega has earned a reputation for responsiveness and reliability.

About HL7® and FHIR®
HL7® and FHIR® are the registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International and the use of these trademarks does not constitute an endorsement by HL7.

SOURCE ZeOmega

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