Summary shows process discipline and transparency; Epic’s escalation risks destabilizing treatment exchange.

Health Gorilla today published a documented summary of events detailing the rapid actions it first took months ago (and continues to take) in response to concerns raised by Epic regarding certain network participants’ access patterns. The summary reflects immediate action and sustained, good‑faith attempts to collaborate with Epic, recognized framework operators, and provider clinical stakeholders. These are objective facts Epic did not share in its recent lawsuit.

What the summary demonstrates by the numbers

The engagement summary surrounding this dispute involves multiple letters, emails, meetings, and governance‑related escalations involving Epic and other stakeholders. These materials reflect Health Gorilla’s transparency and collaborative intent throughout, and demonstrate:

• Immediate protective action: Out of an abundance of caution, Health Gorilla took same‑day action to suspend the entities identified by Epic and has continued to suspend them while investigations proceed through the appropriate channels.
• Sustained written engagement: Health Gorilla sent dozens of outbound emails directly to Epic or Epic‑aligned clinical stakeholders during the review period (excluding communications limited to framework operators or counsel).
• Consistent multi‑party collaboration: Health Gorilla met with network governance authorities at least eight times. It invited at least one Epic stakeholder to each meeting, with Epic confirming attendance at seven of those meetings.
  • Five major hospital organizations (all Epic clients) participated in one or more of the recurring multi-party forums convened to discuss treatment use, remediation progress, and clinical considerations.
  • None of the hospital organizations that participated in these discussions are plaintiffs in the litigation.
• Offers for further discussion: On multiple occasions, Health Gorilla offered to include the clinical leadership of the investigated entities in the weekly forums to answer questions directly from Epic and participating clinical stakeholders. Those offers received no response or engagement from Epic Systems or the participating hospital organizations.

“Patients become collateral damage the moment endpoints start turning off treatment responses,” said Bob Watson, CEO of Health Gorilla. “We acted immediately when concerns were raised, we stayed in the process, and we kept collaborating with Epic, framework operators, and clinical stakeholders. Since this was escalated publicly, we’ve received reports that some endpoints have tightened responses or paused exchange while they reassess perceived risk. That slows legitimate treatment access and jeopardizes care.”

Why abandoning a working process puts patients and policy at risk

Health Gorilla emphasized that interoperability is critical care infrastructure. Nationwide interoperability networks support the exchange of billions of health records each month in direct support of patient care. By contrast, the scope of the concerns raised represents less than 0.03 percent of that overall exchange volume.

Both Carequality and TEFCA establish dispute resolution processes that are meant to allow each network to assess potential problems from a position of expertise and all relevant facts. When governance and remediation work are publicly escalated mid‑process, the impact is immediate: endpoints turn off or restrict responses based on an imperfect record, which has potentially disastrous effects for patients. Even indirect disruption to treatment exchange can result in delayed decisions, duplicated testing, incomplete histories during emergency care, and slower transitions of care—putting patient care at risk. TEFCA, Carequality, and the CMS Aligned Network initiative exist to resolve issues through predictable, transparent processes. Bypassing those processes midstream (as Epic has done here) undermines confidence, chills lawful exchange, and weakens trust in critical national care infrastructure.

Health Gorilla will address the merits of litigation through the legal process. Its priority in the meantime is to keep interoperability functioning as intended: protecting privacy and security while preserving reliable treatment access. Health Gorilla urged renewed focus on continuity, transparency, and shared responsibility across interoperability frameworks.

“This moment calls for confidence in governance,” Watson said. “Urgent action, transparency, and process discipline are what protect patients while preserving access. That is the standard we met and will continue to meet.”

About Health Gorilla

Health Gorilla, a designated Qualified Health Information Network under TEFCA, provides interoperability solutions delivering secure, real-time access to deduplicated, AI-ready health data. Health Gorilla supports EHR vendors, value-based care organizations, and digital health innovators with data-driven workflows that enable more informed, connected, and efficient care.

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