HealthSparq Announces FHIR®-Compliant APIs for Health Plans

PORTLAND, Ore., March 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — HealthSparq, a health care guidance and transparency technology company, has developed new APIs to help health plans meet the data interoperability rules and standards just finalized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC).

“Data drives health care today,” notes Mark Menton, CEO of HealthSparq. “When patient and health plan member data is housed in data silos, it is challenging for people to feel in control of their own health care. At HealthSparq, we’re focused on helping people make smarter health care choices, and easy access to health care data plays a major role. We’re pleased to work with our health plan clients to help them meet mandates and provide a new level of access for their members.”

Today, HealthSparq processes provider and claims data to help millions of health plan members search for costs and care in their health plan portals via the HealthSparq One® application. The finalized interoperability rules are designed so that health plan members and patients can more easily access their own clinical records and share with providers, or other authorized third-party organizations, involved with their health and wellness. HealthSparq’s interoperability services use industry standards, including OAuth2.0 for authorization, REST APIs for access and the HL7 FHIR® standard for structuring data.

HealthSparq recently made the new APIs available to its first health plan client, Regence, to support its interoperability strategy. Interoperability is core to solving chronic member and provider pain points, such as prior authorization and surprise billing. Complete patient history informs better treatment decisions and outcomes, accelerates value-based arrangements and streamlines provider-payer coordination.   

“Regence sees the interoperability mandates as an innovation opportunity rather than simply a compliance requirement,” said Kirk Anderson, Chief Technology Officer, Regence. “By simplifying the health care experience and offering the ability to easily and securely access important health data, we can improve health outcomes, lower costs, improve security, and create better user experiences for patients and providers. HealthSparq has been powering Regence’s provider directory and price transparency since 2012 and we look forward to working together to better serve our members.”

HealthSparq’s Director of Data Products and Analytics, Keith LoMurray, will present a webinar about the new rules, HealthSparq’s work on the new APIs and suggestions for how health plans can implement. The session, “FHIR and Provider Directories: Lessons Learned and Ways Forward,” will take place at 9 a.m. PT on March 17. Anyone interested in the topic is invited to register here.  

About HealthSparq

At HealthSparq, we empower people to make smart health care choices by providing cost and quality information about doctors, hospitals, medical services and medications. We put people at the core of everything we do by conducting continuous usability testing, turning consumer research into product innovations, hosting industry panels featuring everyday people, and bringing human stories to the forefront through our #WTFix campaign. Using these insights, we create solutions to help people understand and navigate the health care system better than ever before.

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SOURCE HealthSparq