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13.11 Resource Contract - Content

Financial Management icon Work GroupMaturity Level: 1 Trial UseSecurity Category: Patient Compartments: Patient

Legally enforceable, formally recorded unilateral or bilateral directive i.e., a policy or agreement.

13.11.1 Scope and Usage

This resource allows for the instantiation of various types of legally enforceable agreements or policies as shareable, consumable, and executable artifacts as well as precursory content upon which instances may be based or derivative artifacts supporting management of their basal instance. The resource is general enough to encode broad range of legal artifacts such as:

  • A Contract instance, which may undergo legal state transitions during its formation.
  • Templates for or agreed upon instances of rules, obligations, and prohibitions.
  • An organizational or jurisdictional policy, for example, for establishing rules of conduct or obligations necessary to achieve societal goods. Or it may encode a contract instance, which may be accepted by one party in exchange of considerations offered by another party.
  • A derivative of a contract instance for purposes of workflow management of the agreement, e.g., for retrieval or indication of agreed upon terms, such as entities allowed to exchange governed assets.

Contracts are promises or understandings that are enforceable by law in case of any violation or breech by any involved party or organization. A Contract instance may be a unilateral mandate such as a policy, or a unilateral, bilateral, or multilateral agreement, which impacts the influence of the parties over the terms of the agreement, and the burdens and risks incurred.

Contract Resource may be typed to support multiple types of domain policies and contractual agreements, and specializations of those types.

A Contract instance must include at least one term with an offer, which obligates the offerer to or not to do, perform, or effectuate some action in exchange for some consideration in return from the offeree, e.g., another obligatory action or non-action, or an asset.

The Contract action element follows the Request Pattern to describe the proposal, plan, or order to effectuate the obligatory service or activity specified in a term’s offer. The Contract action may reference and specify the roles for one or more target entities, the requesters, and performers. By following the Request Pattern, the Contract provides the criteria needed to assess whether the contract obligations have been enforced, for example, in the case of a privacy policy, by an access control system.

The Contract asset element supports detailed description of the consideration being exchanged in a Contract instance or the satisfaction of a policy imperative such as the obligation to render aid as required by local law.

The Contract valuedItem element supports detailed description of the monetary worth of a Contract asset being marketed, the price of products being sold, or the property taxes required under a jurisdictional tax law.

A Contract may be used as a content derivative, which contains the minimal content derived from the basal information source at a specific stage in its lifecycle, which is needed for management and communications about the basal information source. For example, the metadata used to register a Contract’s characteristics and retrieval address in a federated registry/repository exchange ecosystem.

In addition to other uses of derivatives, the Contract Resource may function simply as the computable representation of the executed contract, which may be the attached to the Contract Resource as the 'legally binding' scanned paper contract attachment or referenced location, or as the 'friendly' electronic form such as an html page or a QuestionnaireResponse.

By using the Contract linkID elements, which are associated with key Contract elements, a Contract Resource may be automatically populated with the values expressed in a related QuestionnaireResponse.

Note that the Contract Resource may be considered the legally binding contract only if it is intended to be the sole 'executed' encoding of this contract, and includes the legally binding signatures. I.e., even if the Contract Resource is populated based on content in a hard-copy contract or an electronic contract form intended to collect both the content and the signature of relevant parties to the contract, if contracting parties have agreed or acknowledged that the Contract Resource conveys the binding and enforceable legal contract and that it is fully traceable to the forms used to collect its content, meeting the legal concept of being within the 'four corners of a contract', i.e., that the meaning of the contract, will, or deed is represented solely by this instance of the Contract Resource. This usage could be implemented with digital ledger technology to form a 'smart contract' to the extent that an instance supports elements critical to computable algorithms intended to achieve some output.

Where the Consent resource applies, the Consent resource should be used. Where a Contract exists for a consent directive then if a Consent for this also exists the Consent shall reference the Contract.

13.11.2 Boundaries and Relationships

  • Contracts are used to record in machine processible form a legal agreement between parties

13.11.3 Background and Context

Implementers should be familiar with legal concepts, Ricardian Contracts icon and have a general knowledge of recording agreements.

13.11.3.1 Legal State Machine

This Resource supports tracking of the progress of a Contract instance during its lifecycle as a 'legal instrument' from inception as a draft, possibly based on a definitional contract template to negotiations and the various permutation on term elements that may occur, on to execution. Then it follows the Contract as enforceable obligations, which may be breached, disputed, or modified, until the Contract reaches renewal, termination, or revocation. This is flow is orthogonal to the Contract.status, which tracks the progress of the documentation of the Contract whether it is definitional, a derivative, or an instance. The legal state value set specifies the characteristics of these states based on legal definitions.

Legal State Machine

13.11.4 References to this Resource

13.11.5 Resource Content

Structure

NameFlagsCard.TypeDescription & Constraintsdoco
.. Contract TU DomainResource Legal Agreement

Elements defined in Ancestors: id, meta, implicitRules, language, text, contained, extension, modifierExtension
... identifier Σ 0..* Identifier Contract number

... url 0..1 uri Basal definition
... version Σ 0..1 string Business edition
... status ?!Σ 0..1 code amended | appended | cancelled | disputed | entered-in-error | executable +
Binding: Contract Resource Status Codes (Required)
... legalState 0..1 CodeableConcept Negotiation status
Binding: Contract Resource Legal State codes (Extensible)
... instantiatesCanonical 0..1 Reference(Contract) Source Contract Definition
... instantiatesUri 0..1 uri External Contract Definition
... contentDerivative 0..1 CodeableConcept Content derived from the basal information
Binding: Contract Content Derivation Codes (Example)
... issued Σ 0..1 dateTime When this Contract was issued
... applies Σ 0..1 Period Effective time
... expirationType 0..1 CodeableConcept Contract cessation cause
Binding: Contract Resource Expiration Type codes (Example)
... subject Σ 0..* Reference(Any) Contract Target Entity

... authority 0..* Reference(Organization) Authority under which this Contract has standing

... domain 0..* Reference(Location) A sphere of control governed by an authoritative jurisdiction, organization, or person

... site 0..* Reference(Location) Specific Location

... name Σ 0..1 string Computer friendly designation
... title Σ 0..1 string Human Friendly name
... subtitle 0..1 string Subordinate Friendly name
... alias 0..* string Acronym or short name

... author 0..1 Reference(Patient | Practitioner | PractitionerRole | Organization) Source of Contract
... scope 0..1 CodeableConcept Range of Legal Concerns
Binding: Contract Resource Scope codes (Example)
... topic[x] 0..1 Focus of contract interest
.... topicCodeableConcept CodeableConcept
.... topicReference Reference(Any)
... type Σ 0..1 CodeableConcept Legal instrument category
Binding: Contract Type Codes (Example)
... subType Σ 0..* CodeableConcept Subtype within the context of type
Binding: Contract Subtype Codes (Example)

... contentDefinition 0..1 BackboneElement Contract precursor content
.... type 1..1 CodeableConcept Content structure and use
Binding: Contract Resource Definition Type codes (Example)
.... subType 0..1 CodeableConcept Detailed Content Type Definition
Binding: Contract Resource Definition Subtype codes (Example)
.... publisher 0..1 Reference(Practitioner | PractitionerRole | Organization) Publisher Entity
.... publicationDate 0..1 dateTime When published
.... publicationStatus 1..1 code amended | appended | cancelled | disputed | entered-in-error | executable +
Binding: Contract Resource Publication Status codes (Required)
.... copyright 0..1 markdown Publication Ownership
... term 0..* BackboneElement Contract Term List

.... identifier Σ 0..1 Identifier Contract Term Number
.... issued Σ 0..1 dateTime Contract Term Issue Date Time
.... applies Σ 0..1 Period Contract Term Effective Time
.... topic[x] 0..1 Term Concern
..... topicCodeableConcept CodeableConcept
..... topicReference Reference(Any)
.... type 0..1 CodeableConcept Contract Term Type or Form
Binding: Contract Term Type Codes (Example)
.... subType 0..1 CodeableConcept Contract Term Type specific classification
Binding: Contract Term Subtype Codes (Example)
.... text Σ 0..1 string Term Statement
.... securityLabel 0..* BackboneElement Protection for the Term

..... number 0..* unsignedInt Link to Security Labels

..... classification 1..1 Coding Confidentiality Protection
Binding: Contract Resource Scope codes (Example)
..... category 0..* Coding Applicable Policy
Binding: Contract Resource Scope codes (Example)

..... control 0..* Coding Handling Instructions
Binding: Contract Resource Security Control codes (Example)

.... offer 1..1 BackboneElement Context of the Contract term
..... identifier 0..* Identifier Offer business ID

..... party 0..* BackboneElement Offer Recipient

...... reference 1..* Reference(Patient | RelatedPerson | Practitioner | PractitionerRole | Device | Group | Organization) Referenced entity

...... role 1..1 CodeableConcept Participant engagement type
Binding: Contract Resource Party Role codes (Example)
..... topic Σ 0..1 Reference(Any) Negotiable offer asset
..... type 0..1 CodeableConcept Contract Offer Type or Form
Binding: Contract Term Type Codes (Example)
..... decision 0..1 CodeableConcept Accepting party choice
Binding: ActConsentDirective icon (Extensible)
..... decisionMode 0..* CodeableConcept How decision is conveyed
Binding: Contract Resource Decision Mode codes (Example)

..... answer 0..* BackboneElement Response to offer text

...... value[x] 1..1 The actual answer response
....... valueBoolean boolean
....... valueDecimal decimal
....... valueInteger integer
....... valueDate date
....... valueDateTime dateTime
....... valueTime time
....... valueString string
....... valueUri uri
....... valueAttachment Attachment
....... valueCoding Coding
....... valueQuantity Quantity
....... valueReference Reference(Any)
..... text 0..1 string Human readable offer text
..... linkId 0..* string Pointer to text

..... securityLabelNumber 0..* unsignedInt Offer restriction numbers

.... asset 0..* BackboneElement Contract Term Asset List

..... scope 0..1 CodeableConcept Range of asset
Binding: Contract Resource Asset Scope codes (Example)
..... type 0..* CodeableConcept Asset category
Binding: Contract Resource Asset Type codes (Example)

..... typeReference 0..* Reference(Any) Associated entities

..... subtype 0..* CodeableConcept Asset sub-category
Binding: Contract Resource Asset Sub-Type codes (Example)

..... relationship 0..1 Coding Kinship of the asset
Binding: Consent Content Class (Extensible)
..... context 0..* BackboneElement Circumstance of the asset

...... reference 0..1 Reference(Any) Creator,custodian or owner
...... code 0..* CodeableConcept Codeable asset context
Binding: Contract Resource Asset Context codes (Example)

...... text 0..1 string Context description
..... condition 0..1 string Quality desctiption of asset
..... periodType 0..* CodeableConcept Asset availability types
Binding: Contract Resource Asset Availiability codes (Example)

..... period 0..* Period Time period of the asset

..... usePeriod 0..* Period Time period

..... text 0..1 string Asset clause or question text
..... linkId 0..* string Pointer to asset text

..... answer 0..* see answer Response to assets

..... securityLabelNumber 0..* unsignedInt Asset restriction numbers

..... valuedItem 0..* BackboneElement Contract Valued Item List

...... entity[x] 0..1 Contract Valued Item Type
....... entityCodeableConcept CodeableConcept
....... entityReference Reference(Any)
...... identifier 0..1 Identifier Contract Valued Item Number
...... effectiveTime 0..1 dateTime Contract Valued Item Effective Tiem
...... quantity 0..1 SimpleQuantity Count of Contract Valued Items
...... unitPrice 0..1 Money Contract Valued Item fee, charge, or cost
...... factor 0..1 decimal Contract Valued Item Price Scaling Factor
...... points 0..1 decimal Contract Valued Item Difficulty Scaling Factor
...... net 0..1 Money Total Contract Valued Item Value
...... payment 0..1 string Terms of valuation
...... paymentDate 0..1 dateTime When payment is due
...... responsible 0..1 Reference(Organization | Patient | Practitioner | PractitionerRole | RelatedPerson) Who will make payment
...... recipient 0..1 Reference(Organization | Patient | Practitioner | PractitionerRole | RelatedPerson) Who will receive payment
...... linkId 0..* string Pointer to specific item

...... securityLabelNumber 0..* unsignedInt Security Labels that define affected terms

.... action 0..* BackboneElement Entity being ascribed responsibility

..... doNotPerform ?! 0..1 boolean True if the term prohibits the action
..... type 1..1 CodeableConcept Type or form of the action
Binding: Contract Action Codes (Example)
..... subject 0..* BackboneElement Entity of the action

...... reference 1..* Reference(Patient | RelatedPerson | Practitioner | PractitionerRole | Device | Group | Organization) Entity of the action

...... role 0..1 CodeableConcept Role type of the agent
Binding: Contract Actor Role Codes (Example)
..... intent 1..1 CodeableConcept Purpose for the Contract Term Action
Binding: PurposeOfUse icon (Example)
..... linkId 0..* string Pointer to specific item

..... status 1..1 CodeableConcept State of the action
Binding: Contract Resource Action Status codes (Example)
..... context 0..1 Reference(Encounter | EpisodeOfCare) Episode associated with action
..... contextLinkId 0..* string Pointer to specific item

..... occurrence[x] 0..1 When action happens
...... occurrenceDateTime dateTime
...... occurrencePeriod Period
...... occurrenceTiming Timing
..... requester 0..* Reference(Patient | RelatedPerson | Practitioner | PractitionerRole | Device | Group | Organization) Who asked for action

..... requesterLinkId 0..* string Pointer to specific item

..... performerType 0..* CodeableConcept Kind of service performer
Binding: Participation Role Type (Example)

..... performerRole 0..1 CodeableConcept Competency of the performer
Binding: Security Role Type (Example)
..... performer 0..1 Reference(RelatedPerson | Patient | Practitioner | PractitionerRole | CareTeam | Device | Substance | Organization | Location) Actor that wil execute (or not) the action
..... performerLinkId 0..* string Pointer to specific item

..... reason 0..* CodeableReference(Condition | Observation | DiagnosticReport | DocumentReference | Questionnaire | QuestionnaireResponse) Why is action (not) needed?
Binding: PurposeOfUse icon (Example)

..... reasonLinkId 0..* string Pointer to specific item

..... note 0..* Annotation Comments about the action

..... securityLabelNumber 0..* unsignedInt Action restriction numbers

.... group 0..* see term Nested Contract Term Group

... supportingInfo 0..* Reference(Any) Extra Information

... relevantHistory 0..* Reference(Provenance) Key event in Contract History

... signer 0..* BackboneElement Contract Signatory

.... type 1..1 Coding Contract Signatory Role
Binding: Contract Signer Type Codes (Preferred)
.... party 1..1 Reference(Organization | Patient | Practitioner | PractitionerRole | RelatedPerson) Contract Signatory Party
.... signature 1..* Signature Contract Documentation Signature

... friendly 0..* BackboneElement Contract Friendly Language

.... content[x] 1..1 Easily comprehended representation of this Contract
..... contentAttachment Attachment
..... contentReference Reference(Composition | DocumentReference | QuestionnaireResponse)
... legal 0..* BackboneElement Contract Legal Language

.... content[x] 1..1 Contract Legal Text
..... contentAttachment Attachment
..... contentReference Reference(Composition | DocumentReference | QuestionnaireResponse)
... rule 0..* BackboneElement Computable Contract Language

.... content[x] 1..1 Computable Contract Rules
..... contentAttachment Attachment
..... contentReference Reference(DocumentReference)
... legallyBinding[x] 0..1 Binding Contract
.... legallyBindingAttachment Attachment
.... legallyBindingReference Reference(Composition | DocumentReference | QuestionnaireResponse | Contract)

doco Documentation for this format icon

See the Extensions for this resource

 

Additional definitions: Master Definition XML + JSON, XML Schema/Schematron + JSON Schema, ShEx (for Turtle) + see the extensions, the spreadsheet version & the dependency analysis

13.11.5.1 Terminology Bindings

Path ValueSet Type Documentation
Contract.status ContractResourceStatusCodes (a valid code from Contract Status) Required

This value set contract specific codes for status.
Contract.legalState ContractResourceLegalStateCodes (a valid code from Contract Legal State) Extensible

This value set contract specific codes for status.
Contract.contentDerivative ContractContentDerivationCodes Example

This is an example set of Content Derivative type codes, which represent the minimal content derived from the basal information source at a specific stage in its lifecycle, which is sufficient to manage that source information, for example, in a repository, registry, processes and workflows, for making access control decisions, and providing query responses.
Contract.expirationType ContractResourceExpirationTypeCodes (a valid code from Contract Expiration Type) Example

This value set contract specific codes for status.
Contract.scope ContractResourceScopeCodes (a valid code from Contract Scope) Example

This value set contract specific codes for scope.
Contract.type ContractTypeCodes Example

This value set includes sample Contract Type codes.
Contract.subType ContractSubtypeCodes Example

This value set includes sample Contract Subtype codes.
Contract.contentDefinition.type ContractResourceDefinitionTypeCodes (a valid code from Contract Definition Type) Example

This value set contract specific codes for status.
Contract.contentDefinition.subType ContractResourceDefinitionSubtypeCodes (a valid code from Contract Definition Subtype) Example

This value set contract specific codes for status.
Contract.contentDefinition.publicationStatus ContractResourcePublicationStatusCodes (a valid code from Contract Publication Status) Required

This value set contract specific codes for status.
Contract.term.type ContractTermTypeCodes Example

This value set includes sample Contract Term Type codes.
Contract.term.subType ContractTermSubtypeCodes Example

This value set includes sample Contract Term SubType codes.
Contract.term.securityLabel.classification ContractResourceScopeCodes (a valid code from Contract Security Classification) Example

This value set contract specific codes for security classification.
Contract.term.securityLabel.category ContractResourceScopeCodes (a valid code from Contract Security Category) Example

This value set contract specific codes for security category.
Contract.term.securityLabel.control ContractResourceSecurityControlCodes (a valid code from Contract Security Control) Example

This value set contract specific codes for security control.
Contract.term.offer.party.role ContractResourcePartyRoleCodes (a valid code from Contract Party Role) Example

This value set contract specific codes for offer party participation.
Contract.term.offer.type ContractTermTypeCodes Example

This value set includes sample Contract Term Type codes.
Contract.term.offer.decision ActConsentDirective icon Extensible

ActConsentDirective codes are used to specify the type of Consent Directive to which a Consent Directive Act conforms.
Contract.term.offer.decisionMode ContractResourceDecisionModeCodes (a valid code from Contract Decision Mode) Example

This value set contract specific codes for decision modes.
Contract.term.asset.scope ContractResourceAssetScopeCodes (a valid code from Contract Asset Scope) Example

This value set contract specific codes for asset scope.
Contract.term.asset.type ContractResourceAssetTypeCodes (a valid code from Contract Asset Type) Example

This value set contract specific codes for asset type.
Contract.term.asset.subtype ContractResourceAssetSubTypeCodes (a valid code from Contract Asset Subtype) Example

This value set contract specific codes for asset subtype.
Contract.term.asset.relationship ConsentContentClass Extensible

This value set includes the FHIR resource types, along with some other important content class codes
Contract.term.asset.context.code ContractResourceAssetContextCodes (a valid code from Contract Asset Context) Example

This value set contract specific codes for asset context.
Contract.term.asset.periodType ContractResourceAssetAvailiabilityCodes (a valid code from Contract Asset Availability) Example

This value set has asset availability codes.
Contract.term.action.type ContractActionCodes Example

This value set includes sample Contract Action codes.
Contract.term.action.subject.role ContractActorRoleCodes Example

This value set includes sample Contract Actor Role codes.
Contract.term.action.intent PurposeOfUse icon Example

Supports communication of purpose of use at a general level.
Contract.term.action.status ContractResourceActionStatusCodes (a valid code from Contract Action Status) Example

This value set contract specific codes for action status.
Contract.term.action.performerType ParticipationRoleType Example

This FHIR value set is comprised of Actor participation Type codes, which can be used to value FHIR agents, actors, and other role elements. The codes are intended to express how the agent participated in some activity. Sometimes refered to the agent functional-role relative to the activity.
Contract.term.action.performerRole SecurityRoleType (a valid code from Sample Codes for Security Structural Role) Example

This value set contains example structural roles. In general, two types of roles can be distinguished: structural roles and functional roles. Structural Roles reflect human or organizational categories (hierarchies), and describe prerequisites, feasibilities, or competences for actions. Functional roles are bound to the realization or performance of actions.
Contract.term.action.reason PurposeOfUse icon Example

Supports communication of purpose of use at a general level.
Contract.signer.type ContractSignerTypeCodes Preferred

This value set includes sample Contract Signer Type codes.

13.11.6 Search Parameters

Search parameters for this resource. See also the full list of search parameters for this resource, and check the Extensions registry for search parameters on extensions related to this resource. The common parameters also apply. See Searching for more information about searching in REST, messaging, and services.

Name Type Description Expression In Common
authority reference The authority of the contract Contract.authority
(Organization)
domain reference The domain of the contract Contract.domain
(Location)
identifier token The identity of the contract Contract.identifier 65 Resources
instantiates uri A source definition of the contract Contract.instantiatesUri
issued date The date/time the contract was issued Contract.issued
patient reference The identity of the subject of the contract (if a patient) Contract.subject.where(resolve() is Patient)
(Patient)		 65 Resources
signer reference Contract Signatory Party Contract.signer.party
(Practitioner, Organization, Patient, PractitionerRole, RelatedPerson)
status token The status of the contract Contract.status
subject reference The identity of the subject of the contract Contract.subject
(Any)
url uri The basal contract definition Contract.url