CAQH CORE 270: Connectivity Rule: Relationship Between Phase I and Phase II
CAQH CORE 270: Connectivity Rule is not a reference to X12 270 eligibility transaction. The CAQH CORE 270: Connectivity Rule Version 2.2.0, is payload agnostic, and is designed to carry any X12 v4010 and v5010 administrative transaction payload as well as any other non-X12 payload. The CAQH CORE 270: Connectivity Rule is based on the use of SOAP+WSDL or HTTP+MIME Multipart envelopes for transport and routing, and on the use of username/password or X.509 Client Certificate based authentication over SSL for submitter authentication. The SOAP+WSDL envelope option, and the X.509 Client Certificate based authentication option are well aligned with the direction of ONC, HITSP, HL7 and IHE. The HTTP+MIME Multipart envelope was chosen due to its large installed base in this industry. Since the difference in complexity of these two standards is not significant, it is expected that there will be convergence on a single envelope standard and a single authentication standard in the long term.
Though HITSP T85 (Administrative Transport to Health Plan) uses the Phase II CAQH CORE 270: Connectivity Rule, this does not mean that by being Phase II CORE-certified you will meet HITSP T85 requirements. The CAQH CORE 270: Connectivity Rule specifies the use of the public Internet using HTTP with SSL as the minimum security for the communications channel, using specific envelopes, and metadata and submitter authentication methods. HITSP T85 instead uses HITSP/T17 Secured Communications Channel, which exceeds the requirements of the CAQH CORE 270: Connectivity Rule. For instance, HITSP T17 uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) instead of SSL. The CAQH CORE 270: Connectivity Rule provides a safe harbor specifying minimum requirements, but does not preclude the use of other methods for securing the communications channels.
The Phase I CAQH CORE 153: Connectivity Rule provided an important first step toward connectivity by including requirements for: Use of HTTP/S transport protocol over the public Internet, Use of a specified minimum data set of metadata outside the X12 payload, e.g., date/time and payload ID, Response times, acknowledgements and error notification.
Phase II CAQH CORE 270: Connectivity Rule builds upon the Phase I foundation continuing to provide a safe harbor for CORE-certified entities while including more definitive requirements beyond the transport level to the message envelop level. These enhancements in the Phase II CAQH CORE 270: Connectivity Rule provide requirements for encapsulating an expanded set of metadata needed for routing, submitter identification/authentication and auditing. Additionally, the Phase II CAQH CORE Connectivity requirements for message envelope and submitter authentication standards usage will significantly reduce the variation that exists in current implementations, thus supporting greater interoperability between trading partners.
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