Change Healthcare Expands Resources For API Use, Interoperability

Change Healthcare announced an expansion of self-service resources for developers to scale application programming interface (API) use and comply with the pending CMS Interoperability Rule that will go into effect on July 1, 2021.

Developers will now have access to upwards of 70 clinical, financial, operational, and patient experience API tools that support more than half a billion transactions across the healthcare continuum every year.

Stakeholders will also be able to access extensive technical documentation and tutorials and engage with other application developers via the Change Healthcare Developer Community.

Developers will even be able to try out APIs in a “testing and implementation sandbox,” to determine the right tools to promote interoperability.

These features will help developers get their products on the market sooner and improve their ability to scale API use, the health IT vendor said.

According to a recent research study commissioned by the vendor, 90 percent of payers, providers, and healthcare technology vendors agree that APIs are mission-critical to their business strategies. However, only 24 percent are using APIs at scale.

Additionally, more than two-thirds of providers expect “fully mature” API use as consumers, and all three stakeholder groups expect APIs to “become the glue that binds healthcare together,” according to the study.

The health IT vendor’s new self-service resource enhancements will aid healthcare stakeholders as they accelerate and scale their use of APIs to promote interoperability and deliver a higher quality digital healthcare consumer experience.

Additionally, the vendor has announced the launch of its App Registry which lists digital health applications that use APIs and have attested to greater levels of security based on industry standards such as the CARIN Alliance Code of Conduct privacy practices.

As API use grows, this registry tool could give app developers a simple, secure, scalable way to gain access to the community of payers and providers.

“As the industry implements new data access regulations, organizations can find it challenging to address the complexities of empowering consumers to share health information across third-party applications,” Gautam M. Shah, vice president of Platform and Marketplace at Change Healthcare, said in a press release.

“We recognize the market not only needs trustworthy APIs, but mechanisms to find applications that those APIs can be used with,” Shah continued. “We’re helping to facilitate that discovery as a way to empower the growth and benefits APIs provide all participants in the healthcare ecosystem.”