CMS to share claims data with ACOs in bulk format

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has launched a project to share claims data with accountable care organizations in bulk format, Administrator Seema Verma yesterday told participants at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s annual conference. She said the project uses the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources Bulk Spec, but did not provide details. Commenting on proposed rules issued this week by CMS and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to promote electronic health information exchange, Verma said, “Our agenda is to create a future where the underlying databases that power our health system are connected using [application programming interfaces] and other modern technologies to not just share data, but incorporate it into a single record. And in the future, hopefully the very near future, the data available won’t be limited to a predefined set of parameters. But will include the entire HIPAA designated record set.”