Data.Medicare.gov
A new Data.Medicare.gov platform allows health care providers to maximize the use of the government’s vast amounts of data relating to the health care industry in ways not previously possible. The tools now available can be used to increase accountability and responsiveness, improve consumer and public knowledge, further the mission of transparency and integration in health care, and create new economic opportunity for health care providers.
Data.Medicare.gov contains the vast amount of data that powers other Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) “Compare” websites and directories including Nursing Home Compare, Hospital Compare, Home Health Compare, Dialysis Facility Compare, supplier directories, and other helpful contacts, and the anticipated Physician Compare, which is expected to launch in the near future. Over the past two years, CMS has made improvements to the site to meet the needs of a variety of users, such as the ability to view data sets in your internet browser and providing updated data faster. Most recently, Data.Medicare.gov was completely updated to provide users with access to more data and new ways to search, analyze and organize that data.
These advancements are in support of the digital government strategy and President Obama’s recent executive order which requires high value data to be accessible in machine readable formats and publicly available for bulk download and Application Programming Interface (“API”) use. These advancements are all part of the administration’s continuing efforts to help the overall public state of health and the health care system by providing researchers, policy makers, the private sector and the public with data necessary to interact in ways that improve the functioning of the health care industry nationwide.
Health care providers should be aware of the new accessibility to detailed data and ability to manipulate that data to the user’s best use for two reasons. First, providers should be aware that their own information is more readily accessible than ever and should ensure that data on Data.Medicare.gov concerning their own business is accurate. Second, providers should familiarize themselves with the new tools with the goal of using the data in innovative ways to improve their business. For example, the data can be used for marketing and in partnering with other providers to provide a more integrated approach to healthcare.
Data.Medicare.gov Provides New Means to Search, Organize and Analyze Data
The true value of the Data.Medicare.gov updates is how the data can now easily be searched, organized and analyzed.
All datasets are available to download in a variety of formats, including the availability of API, which allows computer programs to directly communicate with the Data.Medicare.gov to provide real time data. In addition to full downloads, users can download interactive data sets. The supporting documentation describing the fields and comparisons is also newly available.
Data can also easily be manipulated in ways that were previously unavailable absent tremendous labor on the part of the user. Data.Medicare.gov allows users to filter and sort data based on almost any factor and can be searched by keywords. Data can be visualized in a variety of ways such as graphs, charts, and heat measures. Data may also be “rolled up” to aggregate different measures including average, maximums, and spreads.
By creating a free user profile, users may save any data searches, views, or visualizations for future use. Any saved data, search or visualization may be shared directly from the Data.Medicare.gov website via e-mail Twitter or Facebook, and any visualization can be embedded to other websites. Shared and embedded items will automatically update to reflect current data.
Content on Data.Medicare.gov
Data.Medicare.gov compiles all the data which powers the other CMS “Compare” sites into one location.
Hospital Compare provides data relating to general hospital information, quality and payment measures, number of patients and patient survey results, readmissions, complications and death, timeliness and effective care, and use of medical imaging technologies.
Nursing Home Compare provides data relating to general nursing home information, inspection results, penalties, quality measures, staffing and ratings.
Home Health Compare provides data relating to general home health information, patient survey results and quality measures.
Dialysis Facility Compare provides data linking payment to Medicare Quality Incentive Program and other quality measures.
Lastly, the Official Supplier Directory is a list of suppliers, supplies carried at supplier locations and the supplier’s Medicare participation status.
Additional Information
For more information, please contact Janet Feldkamp or any member of our Health Care Practice Group. Benesch summer associate Kelly Kozich was a contributing author of this client advisory.
Cleveland
Harry Brown (216) 363-4606 or hbrown@beneschlaw.com
Greg Binford (216) 363-4617 or gbinford@beneschlaw.com
W. Clifford Mull (216) 363-4198 or cmull@beneschlaw.com
Dan O’Brien (216) 363-4691 or dobrien@beneschlaw.com
Alan Schabes (216) 363-4589 or aschabes@beneschlaw.com
Columbus
Frank Carsonie, Chair (614) 223-9361 or fcarsonie@beneschlaw.com
Janet Feldkamp (614) 223-9328 or jfeldkamp@beneschlaw.com
Kelly Skeat (614) 223-9372 or kskeat@beneschlaw.com
Marty Sweterlitsch (614) 223-9367 or msweterlitsch@beneschaw.com
White Plains
Ari Markenson (914) 682-6822 or amarkenson@beneschlaw.com
Daniel Meier (914) 682-6819 or dmeier@beneschlaw.com