The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) aims to play a larger role in health technology modernization efforts, including cutting-edge interoperability initiatives.
According to a Federal Register notice published June 11, the agency created a new Office of Health Technology Products (OHTP) to provide “enterprise leadership and oversight for CMS healthcare technology modernization, digital products, and transformation of platforms and services that support Medicare, Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and other CMS-managed programs.”
The new health technology-focused office will work closely with CMS’s chief information officer (CIO) to lead corporate strategies such as artificial intelligence, interoperability, digital product development, Medicare.gov, provider directories and claims system modernization, according to the notice.
The office is comprised of eight departments, and the notice lists more than 90 responsibilities.
In March, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reversed a Biden administration-era plan to restructure the department’s technology division and reduced the responsibilities of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. With this revamp, the Department’s Health IT Policy Division reverted to its original name, ONC. Under the Biden administration, ONC’s name was changed to Office of the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.
With this change, three technology roles across HHS – Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer (CAIO), and Chief Data Officer (CDO) – have returned to the leadership of the HHS Chief Information Officer.
According to HHS, the new structure will strengthen the Office of the Chief Information Officer’s legal responsibility for enterprise IT, cybersecurity, and data operations, while allowing ONC to focus on health IT policies, standards, and certifications that support better care and lower costs.
Jody Daniel, former director of ONC’s Office of Policy, said the creation of the new HealthTech Office signals a shift in which CMS will lead efforts on interoperability and other technology.
“While these organizational changes may be purely administrative, the creation of a new office with nearly 100 listed responsibilities (and nearly four pages in the Federal Register!) signals a major shift in expectations and responsibilities,” Daniels wrote in a LinkedIn post.
