As part of her agency’s MyHealthEData initiative, CMS Administrator Seema Verma announced it will release encounter data for Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollees as well as Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) data for use by researchers.
In a speech at AcademyHealth’s Health Datapalooza conference in Washington, D.C., Verma said giving researchers the same access to data for other federal health programs that they can currently utilize for fee-for-service Medicare can help support “the creation of tools to help consumer make better care decisions.”
“Who knows what knowledge—what treatments and cures—are hidden in the reams of CMS data. Help us use it securely,” Verma said. “After all, this is knowledge that could change the life of a patient—or the trajectory of a healthcare system. And we will all be the better for it.”
A preliminary version of MA encounter data from 2015 was immediately made available, with a final version to be released later this year. Medicaid and CHIP data would be released in 2019, Verma said.
The files, as with all CMS data, don’t contain any patient data. Verma said privacy will be a major priority in releasing new information as well as keeping patients aware of how their data is used and shared.
In the larger conversation about exchanging data and making it more available to patients, Verma said CMS is taking an “API-first approach” to sharing data. Application program interfaces have been able to speed up the process of submitting quality measures in Medicare, CMS said in a fact sheet released after Verma’s speech, and can be advanced to encourage easier data sharing between providers—which Verma cited as one reason CMS won’t back down on the requirement for providers to use 2015 certified electronic health record technology (CEHRT) in 2019 after several years of delaying those standards.
“We’re working to ensure that our quality and cost data is available in a timely—and secure—fashion, and, eventually, if a patient wants the information, they’ll have it at their fingertips,” Verma said.
The API approach is already being used with “over 200 developers” working on Medicare Blue Button 2.0, Verma said, which will expand the existing program to give Medicare beneficiaries access to their claims data in electronic, shareable forms which can be connected to other applications, services and research programs.
John joined TriMed in 2016, focusing on healthcare policy and regulation. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, he worked at FM News Chicago and Rivet News Radio, and worked on the state government and politics beat for the Illinois Radio Network. Outside of work, you may find him adding to his never-ending graphic novel collection.