What FY13 has in store for CMS

by Stephanie Sullivan, Consultant

Tony Trenkle is the Chief Information Officer and Director of the Office of Information Services (OIS) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) within HHS.  Trenkle was a keynote speaker at the most recent AFCEA Bethesda Health IT Day. He highlighted that if CMS was its own agency it would have the 3rd largest IT budget just behind DOD and DHS. Trenkle began his presentation discussing the major IT focuses for CMS in FY13, which included:

The 4 “Big Hitters” to be implemented at the component agency:

1.             Enterprise Identity Management (EIDM)
2.             Enterprise Portal
3.             Master Data Management (MDM)
4.             Business Rules Engine

Trenkle also identified innovative technology CMS will be looking to acquire in FY13:

• BI tools
• Data analytics
• Cloud solutions
• Security tools with a focus on continuous monitoring

As Trenkle concluded his presentation, he noted that there is a growing need for data analytics and a rise of end-user tools, and that it will become  more difficult to meet diverse IT needs within CMS with growing budget constraints. He also pointed out that policy/business requirements and technology solutions are becoming harder to align, skill sets are becoming more complicated, and CMS will have to create new and different partnerships with industry to forge ahead in FY13.