# TEFCA Expands AI-Ready Health Data

TEFCA now supports more than 1.7 billion transactions across over 100,000 organizations. CMS and health IT participants are shifting from simply exchanging records toward making health data standardized, interoperable, and usable by applications and AI. For procurement professionals, this points to demand for health data interoperability, FHIR and API implementation, electronic prior authorization, prescription-benefit workflows, and AI-ready data capabilities. CMS-regulated health plans face a Jan. 1 deadline to implement and maintain certain prior authorization APIs.

- Contractors can assess their capabilities and offerings in FHIR, API integration, prior authorization workflows, prescription-benefit data, and preparation of health data for AI applications.
- Health plans subject to the prior authorization API deadline must implement and maintain the specified APIs; suppliers serving those plans may find demand for implementation and ongoing technical support.
- TEFCA’s scale signals a broadening operational environment for interoperable health IT services, but the signal does not identify a specific contract, solicitation, or award.

**Jurisdictions:** federal
**Industries:** Healthcare, Information Technology
**Topics:** Digital Infrastructure, Artificial Intelligence
**Published:** September 30, 2026

### Government Entities
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

### Key Quotes
> TEFCA connects more than 100,000 organizations with more than 1.7 billion transactions under common expectations for exchange. And as that exchange grows, the question changes. It is no longer simply, ‘Can we move data?’ Increasingly, the question is, ‘What can we do with it now?’ Because data liquidity isn’t the end goal, better healthcare is.
> — Thomas Keane, National Coordinator for Health IT

### Sources
- [TEFCA Reaches 1.7B Transactions Amid AI-Ready Data Push | GovCIO Media & Research](https://govciomedia.com/tefca-reaches-1-7b-transactions-amid-ai-ready-data-push) - GovCIO Media & Research