“When Healthcare.gov crashed in 2014, the U.S. Digital Service was assembled as a call to action. Since then, the federal tech service has worked across federal agencies as needed to deliver services that are more accessible, cost-effective and user-friendly.”
“The team is working on three initiatives at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to improve data sharing and interoperability between providers and to modernize a nearly 50-year-old system.”
“Two of those initiatives are API-based tools — Blue Button 2.0 and Data at the Point of Care — that will enable interoperability, said Misu Tasnim, USDS executive director at CMS.”
“Stood up by CMS and Veterans Affairs, Blue Button allowed more than 1 million beneficiaries to access and download their health care information through an online portal. The updated version, Blue Button 2.0, grants third-party app developers access to 58 million beneficiaries’ claims data, while also providing beneficiaries full control over who to share their data to.”
“Blue Button 2.0 will provide beneficiaries the option of easy access to their health care data via third-party smartphone apps designed to specifically address challenges patients have, such as recalling prescriptions or treatment adherence.”
“It also ties closely with the slew of health-information interoperability goals set forth by the 21st Century Cures Act and proposed interoperability rules that will support an “app-economy” from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.”
“’With interoperability, the success criteria is: Can we share the data in a standardized format to the priorities that want the data in a safe and secure manner?’ Tasnim said. ‘We understand that it’s hard for the Medicare population to download and make use of the APIs, so we’re encouraging third-party application developers to develop apps that make it useful for patients to digest their data.’”
“Following Blue Button, CMS created another API-based tool with USDS called Data at the Point of Care, which allows beneficiaries to easily share their health data between doctors.”
“’What Data at the Point of Care does is it actually takes that same claims data and integrates with the EMR vendors, so doctors no longer have to have a separate portal to log into,’ said Tasnim. ‘They’re not spending that time waiting for their patients to remember what doctors they saw and if they saw a specialist and what the specialist said…’”
“Still, the main roadblock with health care providers seems to be HIPAA and hesitation to share certain data…” Read the full article here.
Source: What USDS is Doing to Support Patient, Provider Access to Medicare Claims Data – By Faith Ryan, March 6, 2020. GovernmentCIO.
