A few months ago, at the Blue Button Developers Conference held at the White House, CMS announced plans to further the mission of its MyHealthEData initiative by launching a pilot program called Data at the Point of Care (DPC). DPC is based on an industry-standard application programming interface (API) and would improve patient and provider access to data. The DPC program is part of MyHealthEData and will leverage Blue Button data to give clinicians access to patients’ claims data. MyHealthEData launched in 2018 and was designed to improve EHR patient data access for patients and providers. The government-wide initiative includes participation from the White House Office of American Innovation, HHS, CMS, ONC, VA, and the National Institute of Health.
Pilot Program
According to CMS, the DPC pilot program will transform healthcare delivery by leveraging Medicare’s Blue Button data to provide clinicians with access to claims data. The claims data will fill in information gaps for clinicians, giving them a more structured and complete patient history with information like previous diagnoses, past procedures, and medication lists. Blue Button 2.0 has provided better access to this data for patients but now CMS is going a step further and helping to connect clinicians to their patients’ information. Clinicians will be able to access the DPC pilot data directly within their workflow, without needing to log into another application. This in turn will reduce burden in the exam room and give clinicians more time to deliver high quality care for their patients.
“This pilot program is another example of how the Trump Administration is doing everything possible to bring our healthcare system into the 21st century,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “Technology, coupled with open data sharing, is how we will improve value, control costs and keep patients healthy while ensuring a solvent Medicare program for generations to come.”
Medicare beneficiaries will automatically be opted-in to data sharing as part of the MyHealtheData initiative and will need to call 1-800-Medicare to opt-out, CMS officials said.
The pilot comes several months after CMS issued its proposed rule on interoperability and patient access that will require Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Medicare Advantage plans and Qualified Health Plans to make patient data available through an API to connect with third-party software applications. Many industry groups and federal lawmakers have called on CMS to delay implementing that rule and take a more phased-in approach to lessen the burden on payers and providers.
According to sources when implemented API’s will be the equalivant to railroad tracks for medical records. Information once hidden behind opaque EHR walls will now be open for patients, developers and clinical trialist to help foster a new era in life science and healthcare improvement development.