Strategies and Priorities for Information Technology at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

This issue reviews CMS plans for its IT capabilities in light of these challenges and to make recommendations to CMS on how its business processes, practices, and information systems can best be developed to meet today's and tomorrow's demands.

The report's recommendations and conclusions offered cluster around the following themes:
1) the need for a comprehensive strategic technology plan;
2) the application of an appropriate metamethodology to guide an iterative, incremental, and phased transition of business and information systems;
3) the criticality of IT to high-level strategic planning and its implications for CMS's internal organization and culture; and
4) the increasing importance of data and analytical efforts to stakeholders inside and outside CMS. Given the complexity of CMS's IT systems, there will be no simple solution.

Contents
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
1 ESSENTIAL CONSIDERATIONS AND BACKGROUND
CMS’s Mission, Roles, and Stakeholders
Emerging Requirements for CMS
The Current State of Information Technology at CMS
What This Report Does and Does Not Do
2 TOWARD A COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGY PLAN
Motivating Modernization and Transformation at CMS
The Value of Incremental Approaches
The Importance of an Overall Strategic Plan for CMS as a Whole
Development of a Comprehensive Strategic Technology Plan for CMS
Near-Term Issues—Addressing Them Quickly
3 A META-METHODOLOGY FOR THE MODERNIZATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF BUSINESS AND INFORMATION ECOSYSTEMS
Model and Terminology
Overview of the Meta-Methodology
Preparing for Inevitable Transformations
4 ACHIEVING CULTURAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION
Basic Elements of the Cultural and Organizational Transformation Needed at CMS
Current CMS Organization and Relationships to Information Technology Functions
Defining the Information Technology-Enhanced Enterprise at CMS
Strategy, Guiding Principles, and Roadmap for Cultural and Organizational Transformation at CM
5 ANTICIPATING A DATA-CENTRIC FUTURE
Improving Quality
Consumer Access to CMS Information
Policy Analysis
Reducing Health Disparities
Fighting Fraud
Data Governance
Conclusion
APPENDIXES
A Statement of Task
B Briefers to the Committee
C Biosketches of Committee Members and Staff
D Sources and Uses of Data Within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
E A Two-Phase Approach to Modernization and Transformation of Business and Information Ecosystems
F Glossary
G Acronyms