CMS to Offer Data to Entrepreneurs and Innovators

For the first time, ever, CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) is going to let “innovators and entrepreneurs” access detailed CMS data for “commercial purposes” to develop new products.

CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt made the announcement at the recently completed Health Datapalooza meeting.

New Tools to Improve Care

“Data is the essential ingredient to building a better, smarter, healthier system. Today’s announcement is aimed directly at shaking up health care innovation and setting a new standard for data transparency, ” said Slavitt. “We expect a stream of new tools for beneficiaries and care providers that improve care and personalize decision-making.”

Starting in September 2015, businesses and product developers will be able to access data through the CMS Virtual Research Data Center (VRDC) which, says the agency, “provides access to granular CMS program data, including Medicare fee-for-service claims data, in an efficient and cost effective manner. Researchers working in the CMS VRDC have direct access to approved privacy-protected data files and are able to conduct their analysis within a secure CMS environment.”

Commercial Prohibition Lifted

CMS has historically prohibited researchers from accessing detailed CMS data if they intended to use the data to develop products and make money. “However, ” said Niall Brennan, CMS chief data officer and director of the Office of Enterprise and Data Analytics, “as the delivery system transforms from rewarding volume to value, data will play a key role. We hope that this new policy will lead to additional innovation and insights from the CMS data.”

This is the third consecutive year the agency has released hospital-specific data on inpatient and outpatient charges, Medicare payments, and utilization for common Medicare procedures. The agency has also released similar data on physicians and suppliers.

September 2015 Kick-Off

However, an article in the National Law Review said it “remains unclear” what commercial purposes will be permissible and who CMS considers to be the “innovators and entrepreneurs.” CMS will release additional information about the policy in September 2015, and will begin to accept research requests at that time.

Predictive Modeling Tools

Some of the tools or products that innovators and entrepreneurs might develop, according to the agency, “include care management or predictive modeling tools, which could greatly benefit the healthcare system, in the form of healthier people, better quality, or lower cost of care. Even though all data is privacy-protected, researchers also will not be allowed to remove patient-level data from the VRDC. They will only be able to download aggregated, privacy-protected reports and results to their own personal workstation.”

Because technology advancement has allowed the agency to make current data available without higher data costs, researchers will also be allowed to request data on a quarterly basis rather than the annual updates that were available in the past. The agency hopes this change will allow researchers to conduct more rapid analysis of the delivery system.