With a particular focus on "eliminating and controlling redundant efforts," the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' plan to upgrade its IT systems, released last Thursday, marks a major step in its efforts to comply with the healthcare reform law passed last March. 

The 73-page document outlines how CMS's IT overhaul will improve its business operations, as well as "streamline" billing and eligibility processes. It also specifically talks about a central vision--which it calls the Enterprise Data Environment (EDE)--that will occur in 5- to 10-year incremental development cycles, and that ultimately will help ensure a "free and secure exchange of electronic health records" between providers, insurers, patients and the government. 

CMS points to a transfer of Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) data to a new, "single-source" environment--an effort it refers to as a "Greenfield project"--as a starting point for its plan. 

CMS believes "significant administrative savings" will be realized after FY 2015 as a result of its plan, particularly due to: 

• Reduced risk of system failure that currently occurs because of overly complex systems.
• A simplified infrastructure due to the "retirement" of old hardware.
• The phasing out of old systems for maintaining product licenses and obtaining upgrades or patches.
• Cutting back on labor costs for legacy systems; and
• Negotiations with regard to rates on technical resources. 

"As the enterprise technology systems are integrated and the data services mature during the initial phases, the agency will realize modest savings," CMS writes." 

To learn more:
- here's the CMS report (.pdf)
- read this Healthwatch blog post from The Hill

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