Medicare Opens Access To Claims Database To Facilitate Commercial Analysis of Physicians & Hospitals

On January 6, 2012, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) opened access to its Medicare claims database to qualified third-party commercial health plans, employer-sponsored plans, and consumer groups. The data can be used to create individual physician and hospital quality of care report cards. CMS originally announced that access to the data would cost $200,000; however, the price for access to the data has now been reduced to $40,000. The $40,000 price assumes that at least 25 qualified entities submit applications to purchase the data; if more entities submit applications, the price . . .