CMS Announces Plans to Allow Broader Access to Medicare Data; Healthcare Leadership Council Applauds Action That Will Elevate Healthcare Quality, Promote Medical Innovation
WASHINGTON – The Healthcare Leadership Council, an alliance of leading companies and organizations from multiple health sectors, today strongly praised the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) following the agency’s announcement today that it will make CMS data such as Medicare claims available to private sector “innovators and entrepreneurs.”
“Our ability to build a superb, evidence-based, innovative healthcare system hinges on information,” said HLC President Mary R. Grealy. “The knowledge gained from tens of millions of patient interactions with the healthcare system will create a pathway toward better care, fewer disparities in both treatment and outcomes, and improved tools and therapies to manage and prevent disease. By making this data accessible to the private sector, CMS is making it possible for this process to accelerate.”
CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt and Chief Data Officer Niall Brennan made the announcement at the annual Datapalooza event taking place in Washington, D.C., saying that the agency will begin accepting research requests involving CMS data, including Medicare claims information (in which patients are not identified) in September of this year.
The Healthcare Leadership Council has been a strong advocate for opening access to federal healthcare data, joining with the Bipartisan Policy Center last year to host a forum with officials from CMS, the Veterans Administration, the National Institutes of Health and other agencies to discuss modernizing data access rules. HLC also, in a joint letter last year with the National Pharmaceutical Council, formally requested CMS to provide greater access to Medicare Part D prescription drug program data.
“Our belief has always been that decisions on access to this valuable information should be based not on whether the research will take place in the governmental, non-profit or commercial sectors, but rather on whether the research is of high quality and has the potential to improve population health,” Ms. Grealy said. “Private sector innovators have the will and the resources to transform 21st century healthcare. Providing access to this data is a critical step that will affect health and lives for the better.”
