CARIN Implementation Guide for Blue Button®
In this tutorial, we walk through setting up the FHIR® service in Azure Health Data Services to pass the Touchstone tests for the CARIN Implementation Guide for Blue Button (C4BB IG).
Touchstone capability statement
We first focus on testing FHIR service against the C4BB IG capability statement. If you run this test against the FHIR service without any updates, the test fails due to missing search parameters and missing profiles.
Define search parameters
As part of the C4BB IG, you'll need to define three new search parameters for the ExplanationOfBenefit resource. Two of these (type and service-date) are tested in the capability statement, and one (insurer) is needed for _include searches.
Note
In the raw JSON for these search parameters, the name is set to ExplanationOfBenefit_<SearchParameter Name>. The Touchstone test is expecting that the name for these will be type, service-date, and insurer.
The rest of the search parameters needed for the C4BB IG are defined by the base specification and are already available in the FHIR service without any additional updates.
Store profiles
Outside of defining search parameters, the other update you need to make to pass this test is to load the required profiles. There are eight profiles defined within the C4BB IG.
- C4BB Coverage
- C4BB ExplanationOfBenefit Inpatient Institutional
- C4BB ExplanationOfBenefit Outpatient Institutional
- C4BB ExplanationOfBenefit Pharmacy
- C4BB ExplanationOfBenefit Professional NonClinician
- C4BB Organization
- C4BB Patient
- C4BB Practitioner
Sample rest file
To assist with creation of these search parameters and profiles, we have a sample http file that includes all the steps previously outlined in a single file. Once you've uploaded all the necessary profiles and search parameters, you can run the capability statement test in Touchstone.
Touchstone read test
After testing the capabilities statement, we'll test the read capabilities of the FHIR service against the C4BB IG. This tests conformance against the eight profiles you loaded in the first test. You'll need to have resources loaded that conform to the profiles. The best path would be to test against resources that you already have in your database. We also have an http file available with sample resources pulled from the examples in the IG that you can use to create the resources to test against.
Touchstone EOB query test
The next test we'll review is the EOB query test. If you've already completed the read test, you already have all the data that you need loaded. This test validates that you can search for specific Patient and ExplanationOfBenefit resources using various parameters.
Touchstone error handling test
The final test we'll cover is testing error handling. The only step is to delete an ExplanationOfBenefit resource from your database using the ID of the deleted ExplanationOfBenefit resource in the test.
Next steps
In this tutorial, we walked through how to pass the CARIN IG for Blue Button tests in Touchstone. Next, you can review how to test the Da Vinci formulary tests.
Note
FHIR® is a registered trademark of HL7 and is used with the permission of HL7.