Will Open Government Plan Work for HME?

WASHINGTON — In line with President Obama’s call for
transparency and openness in government, the Department of Health
and Human Services announced its Open Government Plan during a Webcast April 7.

Todd Park, HHS chief technology officer, said the agency is
striving for transparency, public participation and collaboration
across government entities through the plan. Among its hallmarks:
making reams of data available free to the public on a new Web
site, www.hhs.gov/open. The data will, for example, allow
quality performance comparison of hospitals, nursing homes, home
health agencies and dialysis centers.

It also presents information on HME providers, including
addresses, phone numbers, products and services and whether or not
they accept Medicare. As of Wednesday afternoon, there were
listings for 80,725 locations at data.medicare.gov.

Park said HHS is “publishing the data so the public can hold us
accountable for what we do.”

According to the 63-page Open Government plan, “HHS’ vast stores
of data are a remarkable national resource which can be utilized to
help citizens understand what we do and hold us accountable, help
the public hold the private sector accountable, increase awareness
of health and human services issues, generate insights into how to
improve health and well-being, spark public and private sector
innovation and action, and provide the basis for new products and
services that can benefit the American people.”

In addition to providing data on the Web site, HHS is also
seeking input from the public — comments, ideas and
critiques.

“We are asking for ways to correct data, ways to present it that
would be most valuable,” Park said, adding that he is also eager
for ideas on how to get the information out to the broader public.
HHS will hold Open Government launch events, he said, on social
media such as Twitter and Facebook.

“I’d actually love to get additional ideas on how to do this
from the public,” he said. “We really, really need — we
really want — more input from the public.”

CMS Dashboard, Utilization Data

Along with the plan itself, the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services debuted two companion programs as part of its
“multi-faceted new transparency push,” HHS officials said.

The CMS transparency project includes:

• A new interactive “CMS dashboard,” which debuted in beta mode.
  It allows the public to visualize and analyze Medicare spending,
  starting with inpatient hospital spending. The data is current as
  of March for inpatient discharges from January 2006 to December
  2009. View the dashboard at www.cms.gov/Dashboard/.

• Creation of nine Medicare claim “basic files,” one for each
  major category of health care service, to be released from
  September to December for free public download on www.data.gov. According
  to CMS, these files will contain a limited number of variables and
  be “de-identified” and configured through a rigorous process, in
  consultation with privacy experts, re-identification experts,
  researchers and key stakeholders, to ensure the protection of
  beneficiary privacy and confidentiality.

• An upgraded user interface and analytical tool for viewing
  existing CMS COMPARE data on quality performance of hospitals,
  nursing homes, home health agencies and dialysis centers —
  along with the HME company listings — at data.medicare.gov.

• Online publication of detailed Medicaid state plan documents and
  amendments on the CMS Web site by the end of this year.

• Release of new national, state, regional and potentially
  county-level data on Medicare prevalence of disease, quality, costs
  and service utilization, never previously published, as part of
  HHS’ Community Health Data Initiative by the end of this year.

The FDA also announced its piece of the Open Government
Plan.

That initiative will focus on providing information on how the
agency works, disclosure of non-proprietary information in the
FDA’s possession and ways in which the FDA can become more
transparent.

FDA-TRACK, a new agency-wide performance management system, has
been launched in beta mode. When fully implemented, the tool will
allow the public to monitor over 300 performance measures and 80
key projects across 90-plus FDA program offices.

How Will It Work for HME?

It’s anyone’s guess how the plan might translate for the home
medical equipment sector, whose stakeholders have long expressed
concerns about CMS’ shroud of secrecy over most things HME,
including its newest incarnation of DMEPOS competitive bidding. Some
data from the initial Round 1 of bidding have never been
released.

“There’s no transparency on our issues. Regarding the bidding
program, take the repeated request for details on financial
standards,” commented Cara Bachenheimer, senior vice president,
government relations, for Elyria, Ohio-based Invacare Corp.

Lack of transparency was “an enormous concern” during the first
Round 1 bid, added Michael Reinemer, vice president, communications
and policy, for the American Association for Homecare. “I don’t
know how this open government initiative may affect the HME sector,
but we plan to continue to keep our eyes open and our doors open
with respect to all the regulatory agencies that have an impact on
home care, including CMS, the HHS Office of Inspector General, [the
Food and Drug Administration] and the [General Accounting Office],”
he said.

HHS’ Park actually could welcome that.

“The debut of the Open Government Plan is just the beginning,”
said Park. “I really think of it as a journey, not a destination. I
really encourage folks who want to get involved to come to our Open
Government Web site.”

Their input will matter, he said, noting that he pored over
hundreds of public comments leading up to the formulation of the
plan.

“I can tell you I read every single one of the comments we got,”
he said. “They were just terrific. Not all of them are actually in
our plan, but we are looking at all of them for inclusion in future
iterations of the plan.”