Encouraging Collaboration through MOUs

NCPDP has Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) or reciprocal agreements with other organizations to further the goal of advancing the acceptance and use of standards within healthcare. These are independent, non-profit organizations, which share the vision of improved healthcare through standards. NCPDP has MOUs with the following:

• Accredited Standards Committee X12 (ASCX12)
• American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP)
• American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP)
• ASTM International (ASTM)
• Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH)
• Health Level Seven International (HL7)
• International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions (IAIABC)
• Safe-BioPharma
• Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI)
• Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute (PBMI)

General Terms of  Reciprocal Organization Agreements

Promoting Interoperability: A Resurgence of Collaboration Among Healthcare Standards Organizations

NCPDP, founder and Chair of the Standards Charter Organization (SCO), announced that the SCO has been renamed Health Standards Collaborative. The name change reflects the organization’s work, providing a forum for healthcare standards development organizations to collaborate on interoperability and meaningful improvements in healthcare. It also comes on the heels of a major resurgence of the group marked by renewed participation of its member organizations and increased interest by official observers such as the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

Health Standards Collaborative (HSC) is composed of the following standards development organizations (SDO):

• AAMI (Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation)
• ADA (American Dental Association)
• ASC X12 (Accredited Standards Committee)
• AIIM (Association for Information and Image Management)
• ASTM
• CDISC (Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium)
• HL7 (Health Level Seven International)
• ISO/TC215
• NCPDP
• Regenstrief Institute

SDO-related members include: GS1 US; IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise); The Open Group Healthcare Forum; and WEDI (Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange).

Official Observers of Health Standards Collaboration: ANSI (American National Standards Institute); FHA (Federal Health Architecture); ONC (Office of the National Coordinator); and Social Security Administration (SSA).