Dive Brief:
- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services created a new office dedicated to health technology this week as the agency continues to double down on tech and innovation.
- The Office of Health Technology and Products will lead the CMS’ health tech strategy, including overseeing the design and development of digital health tools, managing artificial intelligence implementation and promoting healthcare data exchange, according to a federal disclosure released Thursday.
- The new office will be led by Amy Gleason, who will serve as deputy administrator and chief product officer, a CMS spokesperson said. Gleason has worked as a strategic advisor to the CMS under the Trump administration and spearheads the agency’s Health Tech Ecosystem initiative.
Dive Insight:
The new office was established as part of broader move by the CMS to centralize and streamline the agency’s technology functions and support the Health Tech Ecosystem, which aims to boost data sharing and digital health adoption, the CMS spokesperson said. The office was officially established Tuesday, and the organizational changes will take place at the end of June.
The office will include eight groups operating underneath the main office, including segments dedicated to overseeing public-facing online services and coordinating interoperability standards and policy.
The Open Source Program Group, which aims to aggregate technology best practices from the private sector, including recruiting software engineers and product managers.
The Standards and Interoperability Group leads the agency’s data exchange strategy and oversees the design and development of interoperability solutions and products. Under that group, the Division of Data and Interoperability Platforms develops those tools, including application programming interfaces and data exchange platforms, while the Division of Policy will create and promulgate interoperability regulations and review legislation.
The office also includes a Product Development Group, which oversees two divisions dedicated to managing the CMS’ core platforms and internal tools as well as products for beneficiaries.
Additionally, the office will house the agency’s Digital Service, which focuses on short-term discovery projects to address “critical healthcare system needs, support vulnerable populations, and strengthen agency operations,” according to the agency.
The new office comes as the Trump administration has focused on health technology, touting its potential to ease the complexity of the nation’s healthcare system and improve Americans’ health.
Last year, the CMS launched the Health Tech Ecosystem, an ambitious initiative that included partnerships with major health and technology firms to improve data sharing and increase the availability of digital health products.
This spring, the agency showcased dozens of tools built through the ecosystem, and in May expanded the initiative in a bid to speed progress on electronic prior authorization.
The agency’s innovation center also announced a new payment experiment late last year that aims to improve access to technology-backed chronic condition management. Under the model, participants — including digital health firms — will receive set reimbursement for managing Medicare beneficiaries’ care for conditions like diabetes and hypertension.
