Health IT, Policy

CMS opens claims database to private innovators

Entrepreneurs and other private-sector innovators will soon, for the first time, have access to voluminous CMS data stores.

Entrepreneurs and other private-sector innovators will soon, for the first time, have access to voluminous federal healthcare data stores, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Tuesday. This reverses a longstanding rule that researchers could not use CMS data for commercial purposes.

Acting CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt presented the new policy Tuesday at Health Datapalooza, an event focused on open healthcare data.

“Today’s announcement is aimed directly at shaking up healthcare innovation and setting a new standard for data transparency,” Slavitt said. “We expect a stream of new tools for beneficiaries and care providers that improve care and personalize decision-making.”

Specifically, CMS will allow private entities to submit research requests starting in September. Researchers will only be able to access the information — including the Medicare fee-for-service claims database — for approved projects, the agency said, and they will have to purchase subscriptions to the CMS Virtual Research Data Center.

“We hope that this new policy will lead to additional innovation and insights from the CMS data,” CMS Chief Data Officer Niall Brennan said.

CMS also said it would, starting in August, release research data quarterly rather than annually, with about a three-month “completion lag.” In a tweet from Health Datapalooza, Brennan called the move “groundbreaking.”

Photos: Georgia State University Library, Twitter user Niall Brennan.

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