Drummond’s FHIRplace initiative: Shaping the future of healthcare interoperability

The healthcare industry is undergoing a significant transformation driven by digital innovation and regulatory pressure. One critical area of focus is interoperability, the ability of different health IT systems to exchange, interpret, and use health data seamlessly. As healthcare organizations increasingly rely on Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and digital workflows, the demand for effective interoperability solutions grows exponentially.

Recognizing this, Drummond Group has launched its FHIRplace Prior Authorization Interoperability Testing Event, starting in August 2025. This initiative aims to bridge the gap between regulatory requirements and practical implementation, helping healthcare stakeholders overcome challenges in achieving full interoperability.

Bridging the gap between policy and practice

The FHIRplace initiative focuses on supporting the HL7 Da Vinci Project’s Coverage Requirements Discovery (CRD) Implementation Guide, which is central to the CMS Interoperability and Prior Authorization Final Rule (CMS-0057-F). This federal rule requires payers to implement HL7 FHIR-based APIs by 2027, including those enabling prior authorization and patient data access. These mandates intend to reduce administrative burden and improve care coordination by standardizing data exchange.

While these regulations provide a clear roadmap, challenges in achieving full interoperability remain. Many healthcare organizations have legacy systems, disparate EHR platforms, and varied readiness levels, complicating the path forward. According to a recent industry survey, over 70% of healthcare IT professionals cite lack of standardized data exchange and inconsistent implementation of FHIR APIs as primary barriers.

FHIRplace addresses these challenges by offering a continuous, production-simulated testing environment where implementers can validate their solutions long before regulatory deadlines. This proactive model aims to reduce costly fixes later in the process and improve the overall quality and reliability of interoperability solutions.

What makes FHIRplace unique

Unlike one-time pilots, FHIRplace provides continuous, collaborative testing. Using Drummond’s proven multi-party platform, it simulates complex healthcare workflows, letting participants test interoperability, handle errors, and manage high-volume transactions in real-world scenarios.

This is especially important for workflows like prior authorization, where delays and errors are common due to inconsistent data formats and manual processes. Prior authorization can account for significant administrative costs and delays in patient care. By uncovering these issues early through realistic testing, organizations can reduce costly disruptions post-deployment.

In addition, the simulation environment helps identify integration gaps that may not surface in isolated testing, such as mismatched patient identifiers, inconsistent interpretation of data elements, or latency issues that affect real-time decision-making.

Levels of engagement

Drummond designed FHIRplace to serve a wide range of participants, from newcomers to seasoned implementers, by offering three progressive levels of membership.

Conformance Validation: At this entry level, expert-led testing ensures that foundational FHIR requirements are met. This goes beyond simple self-assessment, offering detailed feedback and guidance to fix compliance gaps before advancing. Ensuring conformance at this stage is critical, as foundational errors can cascade into bigger interoperability problems later.

Ad Hoc system-to-system testing: Here, participants engage in real-time, bilateral testing. Payers, providers, and vendors can work together to identify and resolve integration issues, fostering collaborative problem-solving early in the development lifecycle. This stage allows organizations to iron out practical integration challenges before scaling up.

Full-matrix testing: The most advanced tier offers automated, comprehensive testing across all participants simultaneously. This many-to-many testing validates that each system can interoperate within the larger ecosystem, a critical step for scalability and reliability. Full-matrix testing mirrors the complexity of real-world healthcare networks, where multiple payers, providers, and third-party systems must exchange data seamlessly.

This tiered approach acknowledges that interoperability is not a one-size-fits-all solution but a progressive journey requiring tailored support and continuous improvement.

Aligning with regulatory and industry momentum

FHIRplace aligns closely with ongoing regulatory efforts from CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). The CMS 2024 Final Rule mandates that health plans provide standardized APIs to facilitate prior authorization and patient data access by 2027. Simultaneously, ONC’s interoperability rules are pushing for greater transparency and use of standardized data formats within Electronic Health Records.

These policies reinforce the importance of HL7 FHIR as the foundational standard for interoperability. FHIRplace not only supports compliance with these regulations but also promotes best practices developed through the HL7 Da Vinci Project. This initiative has created multiple implementation guides to streamline administrative processes such as Coverage Requirements Discovery (CRD), Document Templates and Rules (DTR), and Prior Authorization Support (PAS).

Supporting value-based care

The ultimate goal of these interoperability efforts is to support value-based care, where outcomes and patient experience matter more than volume of services. By simplifying prior authorization workflows and improving access to health data within Electronic Health Records, FHIR-based APIs help providers deliver timely, coordinated care.

FHIRplace participants gain early exposure to common challenges in achieving full interoperability—such as inconsistent data capture, system mismatches, and workflow complexities—and receive support to overcome them. This proactive approach reduces the risk of implementation failures and accelerates the shift to more efficient care models.

Building a collaborative testing community

Beyond technical validation, FHIRplace fosters a vibrant community of healthcare stakeholders dedicated to advancing interoperability. This includes developers, health IT vendors, providers, and payers who share insights, test findings, and emerging best practices in a cooperative environment.

This collective effort not only speeds up problem identification but also builds trust among stakeholders, which is critical when dealing with sensitive health data. The community focus promotes transparency and shared learning, driving improvements across the healthcare ecosystem.

Who can join and what’s required

Participation in the FHIRplace Prior Authorization Interoperability Test Event is open to organizations with a provider-facing or payer-facing implementation of the HL7 Da Vinci CRD Implementation Guide. The event runs virtually from August to December 2025, accommodating diverse participants across the healthcare ecosystem.

Members benefit from access to curated test cases, collaboration opportunities, and a structured progression from conformance validation to full-matrix testing. This community-driven approach helps tackle challenges in achieving full interoperability by encouraging transparency and mutual problem-solving.

Real-world implications and lessons learned

The urgency to improve interoperability is more than regulatory compliance. It has tangible effects on patient outcomes, provider satisfaction, and healthcare costs. A lack of smooth data exchange often leads to duplicated tests, delayed treatments, and administrative bottlenecks.

For example, prior authorization delays can postpone critical therapies or diagnostic tests, negatively impacting patient health. By improving data standards and testing processes, FHIRplace helps mitigate these issues before they reach patients.

Moreover, improving interoperability supports population health management, predictive analytics, and patient engagement initiatives. Accurate and timely data flow enables providers to deliver personalized care, monitor chronic diseases more effectively, and respond faster to public health emergencies.

Preparing for 2027 and beyond

The healthcare industry faces a critical window to implement robust interoperability solutions before the CMS 2027 compliance deadline. The complexity of integrating diverse Electronic Health Records and payer systems means many organizations must start early to meet these goals.

FHIRplace positions participants to lead this transformation. Through continuous, real-world testing and community collaboration, organizations can refine their systems, reduce deployment risks, and demonstrate readiness to partners and regulators.

The strategic advantage of early adoption

Early involvement in FHIRplace helps healthcare organizations integrate FHIR APIs faster and smoother, reducing errors and easing daily operations. It also ensures better compliance with CMS and ONC rules, boosting confidence in meeting standards. As interoperability demands rise, early adopters gain a competitive edge. Investing in readiness now improves patient care, streamlines administration, and future-proofs technology.

Drummond’s FHIRplace addresses the challenges of achieving full interoperability in healthcare IT by offering advanced testing, structured support levels, and a collaborative community that helps stakeholders comply with regulations and advance value-based care.

As healthcare digitizes, seamless data exchange across systems—especially Electronic Health Records—is crucial. FHIRplace turns interoperability from a goal into a practical solution benefiting patients, providers, and payers.