A tender requires a provider other than Zivver. What can you do about this?

If your organization intends to participate in a tender but a specific provider for communication of personal health information is required,

we strongly advise against submitting, as this can lead to significant issues. It is uncertain whether the required provider meets, or will be able to meet, the requirements of the recent NTA-7516 standard. We believe that a contracting authority would be better off (or could have) requiring your organization to comply with the requirements of this standard, rather than mandating a specific provider.

If a specific provider is required and you still wish to participate in the tender process, it is best to request clarification from the contracting authority beforehand. To assist you, we have prepared the following text:

As may already be known, NTA-7516 was published by NEN in May 2020. NTA-7516 is the standard for secure ad hoc communication of personal health information. The full standard can be found here.

This standard specifies, among other things, the security and interoperability of communication platforms and serves as the basis for all ad hoc communication of personal health information. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to include “compliance with the requirements of NTA-7516” in the tender, rather than requesting a specific provider. This also prevents an undesirable and unnecessary limitation of choice, while it remains highly uncertain whether the specified provider meets or will be able to meet the requirements set by NTA-7516 for secure communication. We would like to know whether your organization is willing to make an adjustment to the specified requirements.