Independent accreditation strengthens consumer trust in digital health applications and may support participation in CMS' Medicare App Library
WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESS Newswire / February 25, 2026 / DirectTrust, a non-profit healthcare industry alliance focused on furthering trust in health technology and data exchange through standards, accreditation, and other services, and the CARIN Alliance, a multi-stakeholder collaborative dedicated to empowering consumers and their authorized caregivers to easily get, use, and share their digital health information when, where, and how they want to in order to achieve their goals, today announced that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has recognized the CARIN Code of Conduct for Consumer-Facing Applications (CARIN-CFA) Accreditation Program as one pathway that consumer-facing applications may use to demonstrate alignment with CMS criteria for listing in the Medicare App Library, including for applications participating in Health Tech Ecosystem activities and the ACCESS Model.
As CMS establishes guidelines for participation in the Medicare App Library, the DirectTrust CARIN-CFA Accreditation provides an independent pathway for organizations to demonstrate conformance to transparent privacy, security, and data use standards. This program enables health plans, health systems, EHR vendors, implementers of HL7 FHIR-based APIs, and third-party app developers to demonstrate their commitment to secure consumer access to health data.
Through the DirectTrust CARIN Code of Conduct Accreditation Program, DirectTrust Assessors conduct independent reviews against the CARIN-CFA criteria. This process is intended to complement CMS' efforts by helping people understand participating applications' privacy policies, data use practices, security safeguards, and consent protocols - enabling more informed decisions about which applications best meet their needs.
The DirectTrust CARIN Code of Conduct program is an accreditation that provides independent, third-party validation of conformance to the CARIN Code of Conduct. The accreditation criteria are derived from the CARIN Code of Conduct itself, an authoritative framework for consumer-directed health data exchange, and are aligned to its full intent, principles, and expectations. By combining the CARIN Code with independent Assessor review, the accreditation program enables organizations to publicly demonstrate alignment with the industry's highest standards for secure, transparent, and privacy-protective digital health data exchange.
"We appreciate CMS' recognition of the CARIN Code of Conduct Accreditation Program as one pathway to ensure that people can access innovative digital health tools with confidence," said Ryan Howells, Principal at Leavitt Partners and leader of the CARIN Alliance. "The CARIN Code of Conduct was created to establish clear, transparent expectations for how consumer-directed health data should be handled. The code has already been referenced in federal regulations and adopted by public and private sector organizations. It builds upon existing HIPAA privacy and security requirements. Independent accreditation strengthens that vision by providing objective validation that organizations are implementing those commitments in practice."
"The Medicare App Library represents a significant development in advancing consumer empowerment and digital health innovation," said Scott Stuewe, President and CEO of DirectTrust. "Trust is foundational to consumer adoption. By pairing innovation with independent accreditation grounded in the CARIN Code of Conduct, we can help ensure that patients, caregivers, regulators, and partners have confidence in how health information is accessed, used, and protected."
DirectTrust and the CARIN Alliance will continue engaging with CMS and other stakeholders to advance transparency, responsible data practices, and secure consumer access to digital health information as innovation accelerates across the healthcare landscape, supporting consumers as they pursue their health goals.
To learn more about accreditation for the CARIN Code of Conduct for Consumer-Facing Applications, visit bit.ly/CARINaccreditation.
About the CARIN Alliance
CARIN is a non-partisan, multi-sector Alliance co-founded by David Blumenthal, David Brailer, Aneesh Chopra, and Mike Leavitt. The Alliance is led by distinguished risk-bearing providers, payers, consumers, pharmaceutical companies, consumer platforms, Health IT companies, and consumer-advocates, working collaboratively with other stakeholders in government, to overcome barriers in Advancing Consumer-directed Exchange across the U.S. Learn more at www.carinalliance.com.
The CARIN Alliance is staffed by Leavitt Partners as part of the firm's Leavitt Center for Alliances (https://leavittcenterforalliances.com/). The Leavitt Center for Alliances aims to elevate the national discourse on healthcare and help healthcare organizations solve their most complex challenges through consensus-based alliances.
About DirectTrust
DirectTrust is a non-profit, vendor-neutral alliance dedicated to establishing trust in a connected world. The organization serves as a forum for a consensus-driven community focused on health communication and cybersecurity, an ANSI standards development organization, an accreditation and certification body governed by EHNAC, and a developer of technical trust frameworks and supportive services for secure information exchange like Direct Secure Messaging and identity-verified credentials.
The goal of DirectTrust is to develop, promote, and, as necessary, help enforce the rules and best practices necessary to maintain privacy, security, and trust for stakeholders across and beyond healthcare. In addition, DirectTrust is committed to fostering widespread public confidence in the interoperable exchange of health information while promoting quality service, innovation, cooperation, and open competition in healthcare. To learn more, visit: DirectTrust.org.
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Media contact:
Dave Anderson (DirectTrust)
andersoni.com
dave@andersoni.com
David Lee (CARIN Alliance)
David.lee@leavittpartners.com
SOURCE: DirectTrust
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/healthcare-and-pharmaceutical/directtrust-and-carin-alliance-announce-carin-cfa-accreditation-recog-1141504
