Using Health Data to Make More Efficient Use of Medicaid Resources

Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies collect an endless amount of data that, however abundant, often fails to paint the whole picture. According to NextGov, 74 million Medicaid records are now hosted in the AWS Cloud.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is porting in five years or more of records from 50 states—totaling 72 terabytes of data—to the cloud. In the past, this would have created a “log jam,” and likely impossible for the agency’s internal data centers. California alone produces some 900 billion records per month.

By applying advanced analytics and converging previously disparate datasets, CMS will be able to gain an understanding through the data to crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse, and deliver other insights that have never before been realized even with years of existing data.

During the AWS Public Sector Summit, Jessica Kahn, Director, Data Systems Group, CMS, discussed how CMS was able to accomplish their robust data migration and derive measurable benefits.

CMS’s Medicaid program is using AWS to help answer vital questions such as: How many pregnant women had access to prenatal care? Where are people going to get mental health care? How many people are getting opioid treatment?”

The migration is a sizable step in CMS’s overall goal to build a more data-driven culture with the ultimate aim to make informed decisions based on analytics and deliver benefits to the citizen.

Watch the video of her keynote here.

In addition to Medicaid, CMS runs parts of Healthcare.gov on AWS. CMS turned to Amazon Web Services to launch three new features for the website, including an identity management system, a feature for comparing insurance plans, and a tool to determine eligibility for specific plans based on a consumer’s income and other variables. By using AWS, CMS has been able to deliver a stable and highly scalable set of features capable of handling hundreds of thousands of simultaneous users during peak insurance signup periods.

Learn more about how HHS agencies at the state and local government level are leveraging the AWS Cloud for initiatives ranging from the optimization of everyday administrative tasks to delivering a more personalized digital experience for their citizens.