Driving Innovation with Solutions and Data Tackling health system challenges while extending and promoting equitable, value-based care

Driving Innovation with Solutions and Data
Tackling health system challenges while extending and promoting equitable, value-based care

CMS panelists discuss equitable healthcare, data analytics, and more

Health equity, data quality, and cloud-based systems are just some of the areas that CMS is focusing on in its current initiatives. In the recent AFCEA Panel with several directors from the agency, panelists discussed their priorities for health IT, including using data to measure disparities in healthcare access, ensuring that new talent has experience in health equity, and gathering consistent, high-quality data to ensure integrity in data analytics. Panelists also discussed successful projects to transfer IT systems to the cloud across the agency, making it easier for data analysts, clinicians, and policymakers to access the data they need.

Improving health equity

Across the agency, CMS is working to address disparities in healthcare access, quality, and patient outcomes to become a trusted partner dedicated to advancing healthcare equity. On the data side, they are working on using data to better evaluate issues in health equity, as well as making it easier for providers in underserved areas to submit data. Internally, they are taking steps to educate their current workforce on health equity and ensuring that health equity is a priority for new hires.

Prioritizing data quality

Several panelists indicated that one of the main challenges that their area of the agency faces is ensuring that the data they are using is high quality. To address this, CMS is taking a variety of steps. These include identifying appropriate data sources to match the initiatives being launched, making sure that states prioritize sharing data with the federal government, and integrating various sources of employee data into one system.

Looking for industry support

To wrap up the talk, panelists discussed what support they need from the industry to achieve their goals. One overarching point was that companies need to continue to pay attention to policy, because tracking legislation is essential to understanding what work needs to be done and what has not been done before. Additionally, they emphasized the importance of strong communication both ways and staying flexible to fit their plans into the government environment.

As CMS continues to take steps to modernize their systems and operations, they will continue to rely on the industry to come in as creative, innovative thinkers that help the government get to where they need to be.