Connect directly, or with a certified partner. Same network, same rates.
Most organizations will connect through a partner they already trust — the HIEs, EHR vendors, integrators, and service firms that know their systems today. Certified partners are qualified to do the connection work on the shared rails. The network is designed for them to succeed: published criteria, real tooling, and a public registry.
Organizations that prefer to do the work themselves can: the documentation, the sandbox, and the readiness check are free and self-service, and direct connection is always available at the published rates.
How partners help.
Certified Network Onboarding Partners do the connection work: deploy your Smart Gateway, integrate your existing systems, and complete the technical integration and readiness evidence required for production activation. In states with provider-enablement programs, this work is funded by the program — providers connect at no cost to themselves.
Gateway operation is a certification track that opens as partner-hosted arrangements mature. Today, production gateways are hosted by the participant or by SHN as a managed service; certified partners whose customers want an operated gateway should register interest now — the track’s requirements build on the network’s key-custody and audit controls, with your participation and authority preserved throughout.
Either way, your network agreement is directly with Smart Health Network — if you ever change partners, your connection doesn’t change. SHN publishes the standards and certifies the work; it never takes a share of partner delivery revenue.
Who becomes a partner.
Health information exchanges · EHR vendors · revenue-cycle companies · clearinghouses · state system integrators · cloud implementation firms. If your customers need to connect, certification demonstrates the capability to compete for that work.
What certification means.
Certification is earned against published criteria — a supervised first implementation, verified conformance on production-equivalent test transactions, and demonstrated continuing engineering capability — and it renews with each network release. It is a capability attestation, not an appointment: participants choose their own partner, and the network doesn’t steer. And it is governed, not granted — subject to lapse and rule-based revocation. Certified partners will be listed in a public registry.
The pricing principle.
Our published rates are the same whether you connect directly or with a partner. Partners charge for their services, not for access. We don’t take a share of partner fees, and we don’t set them. And no partner is ever required — the choice is always the participant’s.
The path to certification.
- Test. Start where every participant starts — the sandbox, on synthetic data, free and self-service.
- Build evidence. Run the conformance checks and readiness scenarios; your results are the technical core of a certification case.
- Tell us about your practice. Contact the partner team with your organization, the customers you serve, and the work you want to certify for.
- Supervised first implementation. Your first customer connection runs supervised, with verified conformance on production-equivalent test transactions.
- Certification and listing. Certification is granted against the published criteria, renews with each network release, and lists your organization in the public registry.
Interested in becoming a partner?
We’re building the certified partner ecosystem now, and early partners help shape it. If your customers will need to connect — or you want to build a practice on the shared rails — we’d like to hear from you.