AEGIS and Drummond Announce Strategic Partnership Focusing on CMS Patient Access API Test-Driven-Development, Certification

PORTSMOUTH, N.H., Oct. 22, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- AEGIS and Drummond Group LLC today announced a multi-year strategic partnership to support the implementation of CMS requirements for healthcare payers to implement APIs to improve Patient Access to their healthcare records. The partnership will combine robust test-driven-development tools with a certification program that validates compliance with federal requirements around the HL7 FHIR® standard. With decades of independent validation and verification experience in the health IT industry, AEGIS will provide powerful program testing with Touchstone, AEGIS' automated HL7 FHIR® testing platform. Drummond brings years of expertise as an independent certification organization working with federal regulations. This partnership will focus on enabling interoperability by making implementation of the HL7 FHIR® Standard easier for healthcare system developers and ensuring compliance of the recently enacted CMS Interoperability and Patient Access final rule.

New policies within the CMS final rule require healthcare payers to provide access to patient claims and encounter information and move the healthcare system toward greater interoperability. AEGIS and Drummond will provide healthcare payers (and the software developers who create the applications) with the necessary tools and guidance to move forward confidently with the final rule's requirements. The joint program will also provide a seal of approval so that health insurance companies and healthcare providers who procure technology will know those systems are meeting the requirements of the CMS Interoperability rules.

Touchstone by AEGIS provides an easy-to-use, repeatable litmus test for health information exchange that decisively measures healthcare system interoperability and provides reporting on those metrics for users who need clear evaluation of their systems. Touchstone, the premier testing platform for health technology interoperability, aims to help developers leverage healthcare standards for better health information exchange. Now that federal rules are requiring FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources), the industry needs an automated way to prove their conformance to the standard and compliance to the federal interoperability rules, and Touchstone provides that.

"The new interoperability rules from Health and Human Services (HHS) will be viewed as an inflection point in the rising demand for verified, interoperable healthcare software," said Michael Callihan, President, AEGIS.net, Inc. "The AEGIS Touchstone testing platform for FHIR will enable test-driven development for payer organizations to minimize the cost of developing compliant technologies. Drummond's comprehensive testing and certification program will provide accurate, objective validation of the new rules."

As an independent and trusted partner providing industry and technical expertise to ensure compliance and interoperability for two decades, Drummond also is an Authorized Certification Body (ACB) and an Accredited Test Lab (ATL) within the ONC Health IT Certification Program. In this capacity, Drummond has certified more than 3,000 health information technology (health IT) products and specializes in working with health IT developers to test and/or certify their software for use by healthcare providers in regulatory programs.

"This strategic alliance between Drummond and AEGIS represents the best-in-class services coming together to serve the payer community. Touchstone is the best FHIR testing platform and Drummond has been the premier test lab and certification body over the last decade," said Brian Gibb, Drummond CEO and President. "The payer community deserves an independent and trusted partner to give them the confidence the systems they build or buy will not only meet the CMS regulations, but also have the necessary security elements in place to help mitigate the risk of sharing patient data. This AEGIS-Drummond partnership spearheads advancing technology to ensure payers' goals are met efficiently and effectively."

For more information, please visit: https://www.drummondgroup.com/compliance/fhir-certification-powered-by-touchstone/

About AEGIS.net, Inc.
AEGIS.net, Inc. is a premier provider of interoperability validation tools and subject matter expertise on healthcare standards. Our powerful testing platforms continuously validate and report progress throughout the development of healthcare applications. We provide validated assurance for healthcare providers and patients around the globe. A process-driven organization, AEGIS offers professional consulting services to federal agencies, standards bodies, and commercial clients.

About Drummond Group LLC
Drummond offers a comprehensive suite of services to help you achieve compliance with regulatory information security mandates and ensure critical business applications meet interoperability and application conformance. At Drummond, enabling you to feel secure about the ways in which you share your business's sensitive and private data is our primary goal. Increase trust, gain expertise, and experience our proven methodologies and attention to detail as we partner with you for your long-term success. For more information visit: http://www.drummondgroup.com

SOURCE Drummond Group

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https://www.drummondgroup.com/compliance/fhir-certification-powered-by-touchstone/