At Carequality, we know that building trust and accountability are essential to advancing interoperability. That’s why the first half of 2026 has been all about strengthening our community, improving collaboration, and maintaining fairness in how we work together. From revising our dispute resolution process to forming a new workgroup dedicated to trust, we’ve been taking meaningful steps to continue to support our participants, enhancing our framework for the future.
We remain committed to enabling trusted and seamless health information exchange for better health and healthcare. These updates highlight our continued commitment to creating a more reliable, trusted, and collaborative foundation to advance interoperability.
Strengthening Accountability: The Restricted Participant List Policy
This spring, we implemented the Restricted Participant List Policy, a key step in ensuring fairness and accountability across our community. This policy formalized an enhanced process for identifying and addressing behavior that violates our shared standards.
By creating a structured and transparent approach, the Restricted Participant List has helped solidify the foundation of trust within our community. It ensures that we all remain committed to upholding the principles that make our interoperability framework strong and equitable.
The Restricted Participant List also introduces measures to enhance accountability and prevent harmful practices:
- Proactive Monitoring: Implementers must actively monitor and report inappropriate behavior that could compromise the framework.
- Participant Education: Carequality provides resources to ensure participants understand compliance expectations, reducing unintentional violations.
- Community Feedback: The policy evolves with input from participants, ensuring alignment with community needs.
- Regular Reviews: Periodic reviews address emerging threats and incorporate lessons learned to keep the policy effective.
These enhancements reflect our commitment to fostering a fair, transparent, and trusted environment for all stakeholders, empowering participants to collaborate with confidence.
Enhancing Trust Through an Updated Dispute Resolution Process
Trust is at the heart of everything we do, which is why we introduced our revised Dispute Resolution Process, which launched in January 2026.
The updated process reflects lessons learned from real-world experiences since the original 2015 policy was first implemented in 2024. The revisions demonstrate our continued commitment to creating a more transparent, predictable, and fair environment for all participants. Here’s how the new Dispute Resolution Process is improving the Carequality Interoperability Framework:
- More Transparency: Public-approved findings are published whenever possible (with private details redacted).
- Clear Paths and Timelines for Resolution: Established Paths and timelines for resolving different types of Disputes.
- More Clarity on Steering Committee and Board Role: Details on the Carequality Steering Committee and Board of Directors roles during a Dispute and how they work together.
- Specific Committees for Each Path: Each Committee includes outside experts depending on the type of dispute, not just community representatives.
- Stronger Recusal Rules: Anyone with a conflict of interest is required to recuse themselves.
- Continuous Improvement: Every dispute is reviewed afterward to identify ways to improve the process.
As our health data ecosystem scales to support millions of monthly exchanges, our updated Dispute Resolution Process ensures our governance framework continues to be strong. Designed to align with a rapidly expanding interoperability landscape, this framework establishes a highly predictable, expert-led pathway that ensures stable collaboration across the Carequality community.
You can view the Dispute Resolution Fact Sheet here.
Formation of the Carequality Trust Enhancing Workgroup
The Steering Committee continued to strengthen trust by establishing the Carequality Trust Enhancing Workgroup earlier this year.
Formation: The Carequality Trust Enhancing Workgroup has been created to further transparency and trust in the exchange of health information.
Charge: The Workgroup is tasked with developing recommendations for practical and actionable measures that Carequality can take to enhance trust among its community members.
Parameters: To maintain alignment with strategic goals, the workgroup will:
- Ensure that its recommendations maintain appropriate alignment with TEFCA
- Leverage near-term opportunities to bridge gaps in Carequality
- Evaluate the impact of its recommendations on existing connectivity to avoid disruptions to trusted exchange
This group includes representatives from both the Advisory Council and the Steering Committee, reflective of the diverse perspectives within our community. The Trust Enhancing Workgroup has already begun its work, and we expect their actionable recommendations to be delivered to the Steering Committee by the end of the summer.
This new initiative reflects our dedication to fostering an ecosystem built on collaboration, accountability, and trust.
Looking Ahead: What’s Next in 2026
The first half of 2026 has been marked by significant progress, but we’re far from finished. As we move forward under the leadership of new Executive Director Lee Barrett, we’re committed to:
- Listening to our community and refining our policies to meet their needs.
- Strengthening trust through the work of the Trust Enhancing Workgroup.
- Continuing to foster collaboration and transparency throughout our community.
We believe that the steps we’ve taken have set the stage for even greater achievements in the months ahead.
At Carequality, we’re more than just a framework—we’re a community. A community built on trust, collaboration, and a shared vision for a better healthcare system. The work we’ve done so far in 2026 reflects that vision and our commitment to making it a reality.