US CMS launches new health data sharing initiative

The US Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), along with the White House Office of Innovation, launched a new health data sharing initiative, MyHealthEData Initiative. It aims to ensure patients have access to their medical data and to advance private, seamless data sharing to improve efficiency and reduce healthcare costs. The initiative will require Medicaid managed care and insurers to facilitate the exchange of patient data as they move from one payer to another. Previously, the CMS issued the Interoperability and Patient Access Proposed rule, which required an application programming interface (API) based on the Fast Health Interoperability Resource (FHIR), an emerging standard for data formats and elements. The new initiative will allow payers to use the new API to send patient claims to input data directly to providers’ electronic health records (EHRs) to enhance the seamless data exchange.