The HHS Data Council is the senior advisory body to the HHS Secretary on health and human services data policy. The Council coordinates and analyzes data as well as coordinates health data standards and privacy policies.
The Council consists of senior level officials such as the Director of the National Center for Health Statistics, and the HHS Privacy Advocate and expert, and is co-chaired by the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation on a permanent basis along with the head of an operating division on a rotating basis.
CMS www.cms.gov one of the agencies within HHS has the immediate need to deal with big data. The agency has just formed the Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics (OEDA) www.cms.gov/about-cms/agencyinformation/CMSLeadership/office_OEM.html to be led by Niall Brennan, the agency’s first Chief Data Officer (CDO). OEDA has also established an Office of E-Health Standards and Services with Todd Lawson as Acting Director to coordinate a strategic framework for e-health.
CMS in generating data while administering the Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP programs, is faced with several factors affecting the responsibility for the scope of the data collected. These factors include the stewardship of the EHR Incentive Programs, more expansive quality measurement programs, and the establishment of the Health Insurance Marketplaces. The need for CMS to analyze data across multiple programs and provide greater access to this data is only going to intensify.
CMS now routinely analyzes claims data in real-time and applies predictive analytics to proactively identify fraud and abuse and track key metrics such as hospital readmissions. ACOs and State Medicaid agencies receive monthly near real-time feeds of Medicare data to support care coordination.
CMS has also established their virtual Research Data Center www.resdac.org/cms-data/request/cms-virtual-research-data-center to provide lower cost access to data for researchers and federal grantees. The agency has also released numerous public use datasets, including the release of data on hospital charges and physician utilization in 2013 and 2014.