DirectTrust & GLEIF plan vLEI model for US healthcare

DirectTrust and the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation are developing a new Qualification Agent model for the verifiable Legal Entity Identifier ecosystem to support wider use of verifiable organisational identity in US healthcare.

The proposed model would let organisations with established certification or accreditation functions qualify verifiable Legal Entity Identifier Issuers, known as QVIs. Those issuers provide digital credentials that allow other parties to verify the identity of a legal entity, along with the authority and role of people acting on its behalf.

The effort reflects demand in the US healthcare market for a more consistent way to identify organisations involved in exchanging patient information. Providers, payers, pharmacies and technology vendors routinely share sensitive data through secure messaging systems, application programming interfaces, automated workflows and AI-driven tools.

Organisational identity in healthcare is often spread across directories, bilateral agreements and separate trust arrangements. The new model is intended to create another route to expanding the network of entities able to issue verifiable credentials under GLEIF's governance framework.

The Legal Entity Identifier, or LEI, is a 20-character code under the ISO 17442 standard that identifies a legal entity and links to reference data on ownership and structure. Its digital equivalent, the vLEI, extends that identity into electronic transactions through cryptographically verifiable credentials.

How it works

Under the proposed structure, GLEIF would qualify Qualification Agents, which would then qualify QVIs within their own networks. GLEIF would retain oversight of the Qualification Agents, while each agent would monitor the QVIs it approves.

The approach would sit alongside GLEIF's existing method of qualifying QVIs directly. The aim is to use sectors with established accreditation and certification systems as a route to broader adoption of verifiable organisational identity.

DirectTrust, a non-profit alliance focused on trusted exchange in healthcare technology, plans to apply the model in the US healthcare sector. If appointed as a Qualification Agent, it would be able to qualify organisations in its network as QVIs under rules set by GLEIF.

That would give healthcare organisations another path to becoming authorised issuers of vLEIs. It would also extend the framework beyond the LEI system's roots in financial services into operational settings where organisations need to identify not only counterparties, but also the people, software and systems acting for them.

"Healthcare has spent two decades building trusted exchange networks, but organizational identity remains fragmented across disparate directories and individual agreements," said Scott Stuewe, President and CEO of DirectTrust.

"Anchoring organizational identity to the Global LEI System gives us a path toward making that identity portable and verifiable, along with the authority of the people and systems acting on an organization's behalf," Stuewe said.

Healthcare use

DirectTrust is working with healthcare stakeholders on several practical uses for the model. These include establishing verifiable organisational identity for healthcare organisations in electronic transactions, linking individuals and systems to accountable organisations, and supporting delegated authority through credentials that specify roles, permissions and healthcare purposes of use.

The model is also intended for use across secure messaging, APIs and automated systems. That reflects a growing need in healthcare to establish which entity sits behind a digital interaction as more services move beyond person-to-person exchange toward machine-led communications.

GLEIF is drafting the governance, qualification and oversight requirements needed for the Qualification Agent model. Documentation in the vLEI Ecosystem Governance Framework would also need to be updated before the structure could operate as intended.

"The Qualification Agent model is intended to help the vLEI ecosystem scale into sectors where established certification and accreditation networks already exist," said Karla McKenna, Managing Director of GLEIF Americas.

"DirectTrust's deep experience in accreditation, certification and identity assurance in U.S. healthcare makes it a strong organization for GLEIF to work with as we develop the model and explore how it can support broader adoption of verifiable organizational identity," McKenna said.

The initiative builds on earlier digital identity work involving DirectTrust and the CARIN Alliance, a healthcare industry group focused on consumer-directed data exchange. That work included efforts around interoperable digital identity credentials and organisational identity in healthcare settings.

One area of focus is the rise of AI agents acting for healthcare organisations in administrative and operational processes. In that context, the ability to verify which organisation delegated authority to a software agent has become a growing issue for trust and accountability.

"Agentic AI makes this work even more important," said Ryan Howells, principal at Leavitt Partners and program manager of the CARIN Alliance. "As AI agents increasingly act on behalf of healthcare organizations, we need a reliable way to establish who delegated that authority and which organization stands behind the agent. That will be critical infrastructure for healthcare."