Bill would open Medicare data to research

A bill making the rounds in the U.S. Senate would open up Medicare data to private organizations that want to use it for research and analysis. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Judd Gregg (R-NJ), would make claims, enrollment, survey, assessment and other available to private groups hoping to measure care quality, efficiency and effectiveness. Other stakeholders would then have the right to request reports from the research organizations. The research organizations would also be required to release any published reports to the public. If the bill passes, CMS can be sure that private groups will jump all over the opportunity to study some of its current initiatives, notably its pay-for-performance program.

To learn more about the bill:
- read this Health Data Management piece