Direct Messaging and Direct 360X provide a standards-based alternative for securely exchanging referrals and clinical information without the complexity of traditional point-to-point integrations.
MT. PLEASANT, S.C., Aug. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- ReferralMD, the leading provider of AI-powered referral management, care coordination, and healthcare network solutions, today announced expanded support for Direct Secure Messaging and Direct 360X, giving healthcare organizations a faster, cost-effective alternative to traditional EHR integrations for exchanging referrals and clinical information.
In the past, healthcare organizations have relied on custom API and HL7 integrations to connect providers and electronic health record (EHR) systems. While powerful, these integrations require significant implementation effort, months of coordination between vendors, ongoing maintenance, and substantial financial investment. Every new EHR connection can become a separate project requiring development resources, testing, certification, and long-term support.
Reducing the Cost of Interoperability
ReferralMD supports thousands of healthcare organizations using a wide variety of EHRs, yet most healthcare practices are still communicating with each other by fax. Now any practice or organization can receive FREE access to the Direct Trust network with your FREE ReferralMD account. Organizations can leverage ReferralMD's incorporation of Direct, 360X, and other standards-based secure communication protocols to exchange data https://referralmd.com/th over 3 million providers and 200,000+ organizations.
Benefits include:
- 24-hour onboarding, faster than any API, HL7, or FHIR interfaces
- Lower implementation and maintenance costs
- Reduced dependence on IT departments and developers
- Simplified connectivity across networks and EHR vendors
- FREE access to the Direct Trust network and 360X interoperability
- Secure, encrypted exchange of protected health information (PHI)
- Standards-based interoperability designed for nationwide scalability
By reducing implementation complexity, healthcare organizations can onboard providers more quickly, expand referral networks, and improve care coordination without lengthy integration projects.
What Is Direct Secure Messaging?
Direct Secure Messaging is a national standard for encrypted, point-to-point exchange of protected health information between trusted healthcare organizations. It is purpose-built for the secure exchange of patient data, referrals, clinical summaries, laboratory results, imaging reports, discharge summaries, and other information. The standard ensures data security, HIPAA compliance, and trusted senders and receivers.
ReferralMD's Direct Messaging capabilities enable organizations to:
- Securely send and receive referrals and clinical documents
- Reduce reliance on fax-based workflows
- Exchange structured clinical information with Direct-enabled EHRs
- Improve security through encrypted communications
- Connect with organizations regardless of their EHR vendor.
What Is Direct 360X?
Direct 360X is an evolution of healthcare interoperability for referrals and care coordination. While Direct Messaging focuses on securely exchanging documents, Direct 360X adds standardized business workflows that allow health IT systems to electronically manage the referral process from beginning to end.
Developed through collaboration between DirectTrust, HL7, and industry leaders, Direct 360X supports:
- Electronic referral requests
- Referral acknowledgments
- Referral acceptance or decline
- Appointment scheduling notifications
- Consultation reports
- Referral completion and status updates
Instead of simply delivering clinical documents, Direct 360X enables systems to exchange structured referral events that can be automatically processed by both organizations, dramatically reducing manual phone calls, faxing, and administrative follow-up.
Proud Member of DirectTrust
ReferralMD is a voting member of DirectTrust, the nonprofit alliance that develops and governs the trust framework for secure health information exchange across the United States. Through its participation in DirectTrust, ReferralMD remains aligned with the latest interoperability standards and helps healthcare organizations confidently exchange information across organizational and EHR boundaries.
Executive Perspective
"Healthcare organizations have spent years investing in expensive, custom integrations that can take months to deploy and require continuous maintenance," said Rick Hammer, Chief Product Officer at ReferralMD. "Direct Messaging and Direct 360X represent a smarter approach to interoperability. By embracing national standards, providers can connect faster, reduce implementation costs, and securely exchange referral information without the burden of building custom interfaces. Our goal is to make interoperability simpler, more affordable, and accessible to every healthcare organization."
About ReferralMD
ReferralMD is the leading patient journey and provider network orchestration platform connecting healthcare organizations, physicians, and patients with AI-powered workflow automation. The platform streamlines referrals, scheduling, fax management, provider communications, analytics, patient access, provider network management, and care coordination while leveraging artificial intelligence to eliminate manual administrative work. ReferralMD helps health systems, medical groups, accountable care organizations, clinically integrated networks, and specialty practices improve patient access, increase referral conversion, and strengthen provider collaboration with the largest network and most-used platform for patient and provider orchestration.
Media Contact
Elisabeth Buford, ReferralMD, 1 (800) 343-3729, [email protected], www.ReferralMD.com
SOURCE ReferralMD
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