Dive Brief:
- The CMS showcased dozens of health technology tools Thursday as part of an update on the agency’s ambitious tech and data sharing initiative.
- The Health Tech Ecosystem, launched in July, aims to ease data interoperability and patient access to their own health information, as well as increase the availability of digital health and artificial intelligence tools through partnerships with the private sector.
- More than 700 organizations have pledged to support the initiative, and over 120 have said their products are ready for use or close to completion, Amy Gleason, acting administrator of the U.S. DOGE Service and senior advisor to the CMS, said at the event. “We prove that companies that normally compete can get in the same room and build real things together,” she said.
Dive Insight:
The ecosystem was originally launched with more than 60 companies, including major healthcare and technology firms like UnitedHealth, Amazon and Epic. One focus of the ecosystem is to improve the healthcare sector’s pernicious data sharing challenges, a long-term issue for an industry that’s often reliant on outdated technologies like fax machines.
The initiative has two major goals, CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said during the event. One is to “kill the clipboard,” or end the practice that requires patients to fill out pages of their health information before doctor’s appointments.
Instead, patients should be able to collect their health data on apps of their choice and share information with new providers via a QR code, CMS officials said. And once health information is readily available, the second goal is to “unleash AI,” so patients can use their data to guide their care, Oz said.
“With AI, we’re going to give folks access to information they never had before — life-saving information,” he said.
Although experts told Healthcare Dive last year that improving the ease of health data exchange is a worthy objective, the patient data access expectations are high and data privacy could be a challenge.
More than 50 companies shared demonstrations on their work as part of the ecosystem. For example, insurer Humana partnered with digital health firm b.well Connected Health to allow users to collect their data across providers and plans, as well as help the insurer access its’ members’ information.
And electronic health record vendor eClinicalWorks demonstrated a workflow that allows providers to scan a QR code to import patients’ health records into their EHR.
The CMS has made progress on some of its objectives under the initiative, officials said. For example, as of last month, Medicare beneficiaries can use identity verification services like ID.me, Clear and Login.gov to create and log in to their Medicare accounts, which should better protect enrollees from fraud and identity theft, officials said.
The agency is also working to create caregiver accounts for Medicare.gov, so family members and other caregivers can help beneficiaries manage their care.
Additionally, the CMS has created an app library where beneficiaries can access apps vetted by the agency, including tools where users can collect their health records or manage chronic conditions.
The agency also created a new endpoint, or a location where an application programming interface can receive data or resource requests, for the CMS’ Blue Button API. That should allow Medicare beneficiaries to retrieve their medical records and a digital Medicare ID card, officials said.
