Nationwide interoperability just got a whole lot easier.

Zen Healthcare IT is proud to announce that we are officially live on CommonWell Health Alliance as a Service Adopter – a move that unlocks greater nationwide health data exchange for providers, payers, and technology vendors using our Gemini Integration Platform and Stargate Gateway.

But what does that actually mean for our clients? And why is this a major step forward for the healthcare industry as a whole?

Let’s break it down.

What Is CommonWell Health Alliance?

Before diving into the impact of this partnership, let’s zoom out for a moment.

CommonWell Health Alliance is a nonprofit, member-driven organization and a Qualified Health Information Network. The organization is dedicated to the secure and seamless flow of health information to improve patient care, ensuring that all health data is available to clinicians, care teams, and patients, regardless of where care occurs.

In simpler terms, CommonWell Alliance is one of the central hubs helping hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare organizations talk to each other. It plays a critical role in nationwide data exchange through services like:

  • Record Locator Services (RLS) – which help find a patient’s records across different systems. 
  • Enterprise Master Patient Index (EMPI) – which ensures that a patient’s records are accurately matched and linked.

With tens of thousands of care sites already connected, CommonWell is one of the most important networks powering interoperability in the U.S. This is due to their status in the two essential trusted exchange frameworks  – Carequality (Implementer) and TEFCA (QHIN).

And now, with Zen as a Service Adopter, our clients have plug-and-play access to this critical infrastructure, with complete coverage to all nationwide data exchange efforts, with multiple options for TEFCA based exchange.

Why Zen Joined CommonWell

At Zen, our mission is simple: Make interoperability easier.

In practice, that means giving healthcare organizations the ability to exchange data with confidence – without complex development work, unpredictable costs, or limited reach.

By joining CommonWell, we’ve added another powerful tool to our clients’ toolkits:

Expanded National-scale connectivity
Optimized query patterns and results
A clear path toward TEFCA readiness and QHIN connectivity

This move strengthens Zen’s core value proposition: to serve as a universal connector, giving customers a single, powerful access point to all the major national networks they need.

As Marilee Benson, President & Co-Founder of Zen Healthcare IT, puts it:

 

Our role as a CommonWell Service Adopter strengthens our mission to simplify interoperability for healthcare organizations of all sizes,” said Marilee Benson, President & Co-Founder at Zen Healthcare IT. “By integrating CommonWell’s network services into our Stargate Gateway, we help providers and vendors exchange data more effectively, improving patient outcomes and operational efficiency.

 

What It Means for Zen Customer

Whether you’re a healthcare provider, health IT vendor, or HIE, this news means more power, less friction.

Here’s how:

1. Optimized Record Retrieval via RLS & EMPI Services

Let’s face it: finding the right patient’s record in a sea of data isn’t always easy.

That’s why Zen’s Stargate Gateway now leverages CommonWell’s Record Locator Services and Enterprise Master Patient Index – two core services that dramatically improve match rates and data accuracy.

What this means for you:

  • Fewer failed queries.
  • Higher document retrieval success rates.
  • More complete patient records at the point of care.

This is a game-changer for organizations that rely on real-time data for care coordination, analytics, or population health initiatives.

2. Flexible Integration Options

Every healthcare organization has a different tech stack.

Some are API-native. Others are working with legacy systems. Most fall somewhere in between.

That’s why Zen’s solution is built to be flexible.

We support both modern APIs and custom integration approaches, allowing you to connect once and access multiple networks (CommonWell, Carequality, eHealth Exchange, and more) without a major lift from your internal dev team.

This makes it easy to scale your interoperability strategy, even if your systems are complex.

3. An Accelerated Path Toward TEFCA Readiness

The Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) is setting the stage for the next evolution of health data exchange in the U.S.

Eventually, nearly all health data exchange will happen through Qualified Health Information Networks (QHINs) – national networks certified by the Sequoia Project and ONC/ASTP.

By integrating with CommonWell – one of the most prominent TEFCA-ready networks – Zen provides customers with an additional QHIN access point. That means:

  • Greater flexibility in choosing which QHINs to work with.
  • Faster compliance with TEFCA policies.
  • Future-proof architecture as the national model evolves.

Our customers are not locked into one path – we make it easy to align with whichever QHIN best suits your business needs.

How It Works: CommonWell Alliance + Stargate Gateway

So, how does this all come together behind the scenes?

Here’s a quick look at the tech stack:

  1. Zen’s Gemini Integration Platform serves as the command center. It manages connections, processes messages, and logs activity.
  2. The Stargate Gateway acts as the highway between your systems and national networks like CommonWell, Carequality, and others.
  3. When a patient query is initiated, Stargate taps into CommonWell’s EMPI and Record Locator Service to find all known care sites for that unique patient, eliminating the need to do “blind” queries to a high volume of endpoints.
  4. The result: clean, complete patient data delivered seamlessly into your system of choice.

This architecture makes it easy to onboard, operate, and expand your data exchange footprint without the complexity most organizations associate with interoperability projects.

The Bigger Picture: Why Interoperability Still Matters

It’s tempting to think that interoperability is “solved.”
After all, we’ve been working on it for over a decade.

But the reality on the ground is this:

  • Patients still show up to appointments with no records on file.
  • Care teams still make decisions without the full picture.
  • Organizations still burn hours chasing down lab results, discharge summaries, and medication histories.

Interoperability may be improving, but it’s not universal yet.

That’s why Zen exists. And that’s why joining CommonWell matters.

We’re building toward a future where data follows the patient, wherever they go, no matter the EHR, care setting, or geography.

Who Should Care About This Announcement?

If you’re in any of the following roles, this update is for you:

  • Health IT Vendors – Offers simple API based connectivity through your product without building and maintaining your own connections to complex data sharing networks with rapidly evolving requirements.
  • Hospitals & Health Systems – Tired of hearing “it doesn’t work”? Zen + CommonWell optimizes network queries to ensures the care team has data when they need it, improving care delivery.
  • Health Plans & ACOs – Future proofs your interoperability strategy by ensuring TEFCA readiness, with mandatory operational use cases coming in 2026.
  • Public Health & HIEs – Provides a more scalable & nimble infrastructure to support targeted high value use cases across multiple networks.

Zen serves as your strategic integration partner, giving you not just access – but efficiency, visibility, and peace of mind.

Final Thoughts

Being live on CommonWell as a Service Adopter is more than just a milestone for Zen – it’s a powerful upgrade for every healthcare organization we serve.

By expanding access to nationwide interoperability services, we’re making it easier than ever for our clients to:

  • Connect to multiple national networks with a single integration.
  • Retrieve accurate patient data with less manual work.
  • Prepare for the next era of regulated data exchange under TEFCA.

If you’re ready to expand your interoperability strategy without overloading your team, we’d love to talk.

To learn more about how Zen + CommonWell Alliance can simplify your interoperability strategy, follow us on LinkedIn.

 

Zen Healthcare IT Case Study

 

Download Full Case Study PDF

 

Enter your name and email to instantly access the case study.