Epic’s reach is now a network
Industry commentary argues Epic expertise must now include external exchange and governance, not just build work in the chart, because Epic customers are moving record‑sharing into production exchanges like TEFCA. That reframes Epic work from local optimisation to managing how data travels to payers, government agencies and other providers. (digitalhealthnews.com)(epicshare.org)
A hospital using Epic used to think mostly about what happened inside its own chart. On April 8, Epic said its customers became the first in the country to send medical records to the Social Security Administration through the federal Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement network. (epic.com) That first wave included 13 hospitals and 374 clinics. The records are being used for disability benefit decisions, and Epic said the electronic route can cut those determinations by up to 50%. (healthcareitnews.com) The Social Security Administration joined this network in February 2026 after saying it expected to go live in early spring. The agency said faster access to electronic records would help it make disability decisions without waiting on paper files, faxes, or mailed requests. (ssa.gov 1) (ssa.gov 2) The network matters because Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement is not one company’s pipe. It is a federal rulebook and connection model meant to give hospitals, clinics, agencies, and other groups one trusted on-ramp for sharing health data nationwide. (rce.sequoiaproject.org) (epic.com) That changes what “Epic work” looks like. A team that once focused on note templates, order sets, and in-basket routing now also has to manage outside exchange rules, identity matching, consent, audit trails, and who is allowed to receive what data. (sequoiaproject.org) (ssa.gov) The new Social Security use case is not just a one-off connection between one hospital and one agency. The Sequoia Project’s Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement site says the network now includes 14,214 live organizations and more than 81,000 unique connections. (rce.sequoiaproject.org) Epic has been building for this by turning its customer base into a shared exchange layer. Epic says customers connect through the Epic Community’s Qualified Health Information Network, which sits between local health systems and the wider federal framework. (epic.com) Once records leave the chart, the hard part is no longer just “can we document this visit.” The hard part becomes “can we send the right record, to the right outside party, under the right rule, and prove later that we did it correctly.” (ssa.gov) (sequoiaproject.org) That is why this announcement lands beyond disability claims. If Epic sites are now exchanging production data with a federal benefits agency through a national framework, then Epic analysts, architects, and compliance teams are moving from hospital optimization into network governance. (digitalhealthnews.com) (epicshare.org)
