Pausing the Proposed CMS Data Access Policy

For several decades, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have provided access to data for researchers studying the costs, quality, and outcomes of health care in the Medicare and Medicaid programs that together serve about 130 million people living in the US, including older adults, people with disabilities, and children and adults with low incomes.Health services researchers at universities, academic health systems, and other organizations have been able to acquire physical copies of Medicare and Medicaid data for CMS-approved studies.Although the initial cost of acquiring data can be substantial, the data may be reused by other CMS-approved researchers in the same organization for $2000 per project.Graduate students may reuse these data for dissertations without cost.In response to concerns about potential data breaches, CMS has recently proposed to eliminate researchers' option to acquire and reuse Medicare and Medicaid data for new studies, which would take effect in 2025. 1 CMS will instead require researchers to use its secure data enclave-the Chronic