TEFCA Mode Is Here: One Line of Code, 60,000 Providers

Happy New Year from the Fasten team.

With the new year comes a wave of long awaited changes for Fasten customers. TEFCA IAS is now generally available to Fasten Customers, identity verification now supports both Clear and ID.me, Catalog Search has gotten faster and smarter, consent expiration data is now available via the API, and USCDIv3 updates are rolling out across our EHR integrations. We also published a deep dive on TEFCA IAS that breaks down how record location actually works behind the scenes. If you like understanding what is happening under the hood, that one is worth a read.

TEFCA IAS is now generally available

If you are already a Fasten customer, you can start using TEFCA mode today.

If TEFCA is new to you, here is the short version.

TEFCA IAS provides a new way to locate and access patient records without requiring patients to remember every provider they have ever seen or track down usernames and passwords for patient portals they may have never created.

Instead, patients verify their identity using a government issued ID and a selfie through Clear or ID.me. Once verified, Fasten queries the TEFCA network, which includes more than 60,000 healthcare providers, and returns a list of locations where the patient has previously received care.

This finally solves the record discoverability problem.

Even better, most institutions release records automatically. In many cases, patients never have to log into individual patient portals.

Turning on TEFCA mode

If you are using our Stitch.js widget, enabling TEFCA mode is a single line change.

<fasten-stitch-element public-id="public_live_xxxxxx" tefca-mode="true"> </fasten-stitch-element>

That one flag gives you access to the full TEFCA network plus Fasten’s existing catalog of 52,000 health systems accessible through patient portals.

Note that there are additional fees involved with TEFCA mode in production, as Fasten handles IAL2 identity verification via Clear and ID.me, QHIN connectivity, and CCDA to FHIR conversion automatically.

Enable TEFCA Mode.

Catalog Search enhancements

We have heard your feedback, and Catalog Search has been upgraded to support search as you type and partial matches for faster and more intuitive patient searches.

This means patients can search for “New York Pres” instead of guessing how to spell Presbyterian.

Location aware search

You may also notice a map marker in the Catalog Search experience. Search is now location aware. You can pass us a patient ZIP code, or we can prompt the patient to share their device location. This allows us to return more relevant and accurate search results.

Upcoming HTI 2 and USCDIv3 updates

January 2026 was the compliance deadline for USCDIv3. Certified EHR vendors are now required to expose a number of new FHIR resources and data elements through their APIs.

We have already upgraded several EHR integrations to support USCDIv3. As a result, new data will automatically appear in the exports you receive from Fasten. We will continue rolling out updates as vendors release compliant versions.

If you look at Epic’s permissions page, you will notice several new red boxes. Those represent new data elements and resources that patients can now share under USCDIv3.

We’d Love to Hear From You

Working on patient recruitment, personal health records, insurtech, or AI diagnostics?

We would love to show you how you can start pulling medical records in minutes, not months.

Please get in touch.

Thanks for reading, and for building a better patient data future with us.