A new data initiative administered by CMS through the newly formed Office of Information Products and Data Analytics (OIPDA) will now oversee their comprehensive portfolio of data and information. The data and information that CMS deals with is enormous. Under Medicare alone, CMS processes more than 1.3 billion claims a year and generates billions of other non-claim data points.
The amount of data and information is increasing since CMS receives data submissions under the meaningful use requirements of the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs, collects Medicare Advantage encounter data, and in 2014, CMS will begin to receive health insurance exchange data.
Faced with the enormous challenge of dealing with all of the data, CMS is working to not only improve data access and dissemination, but to also develop new products and tools designed to better harness data resources.
OIPDA will take over several ongoing data functions including the Chronic Condition Warehouse, Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, Medicaid Analytic Extract, Research Data Assistance Center, Medicare Data Sharing for Performance Measurement Program, publication of Medicare’s demographic, spending, utilization and quality information, and provide oversight for the Medicare “Blue Button” initiative.
The new OIPDA Data and Information products will include:
- Medicare Geographic Variation Trend Data—A data set that leverages nearly 5 billion Medicare claims in an easy-to-use data format that will provide key metrics at the state and hospital referral region levels
- Medicare Enrollment Dashboard—An online dashboard to provide a single location with comprehensive statistics on Medicare enrollment
- Medicare & Medicaid Research Review—A peer-reviewed online journal on current and future directions for Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance
- CMS Data Navigator—A web-based search tool that rapidly connects researchers, policy makers, and the general public to the CMS data resources. The system is scheduled to be in operation by mid-summer 2012
For more information, go to the CMS fact sheet at www.cms.gov/apps/media/fact_sheets.asp.
