Dive Brief:
- On Friday, CMS released a proposed rule that would provide approved organizations with access to claims data for analyses, sharing, and sale under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA).
- The "qualified entities" would be allowed "to confidentially share or sell analyses of Medicare and private sector claims data to providers, employers, and other groups who can use the data to support improved care," the CMS stated.
- Those receiving patient-protected Medicare analyses or data would be subject to privacy and security requirements, as well as annual reporting requirements.
Dive Insight:
The intent is to allow the data to be used in the quest toward better health outcomes and smarter healthcare spending.
“Increasing access to analyses and data that include Medicare data will make it easier for stakeholders throughout the healthcare system to make smarter and more informed healthcare decisions,” said CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt in a prepared statement.
Qualified entities will be required to combine the Medicare data with other claims data in order to create analyses that look at performance across multiple payers, such as Medicare, Medicaid, or various commercial payers, CMS specifies.
So far, there are 13 organizations that have applied and been approved to be qualified entities.
The proposed rule can be viewed at the Office of the Federal Register, and comments are being accepted until March 29.