Ad Hoc, Fearless, and Ellumen win contract to continue support of Blue Button 2.0

Ad Hoc, along with team members Fearless and Ellumen, Inc., have been awarded a new, four-year contract to continue supporting the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on the Blue Button 2.0 project.

The Blue Button 2.0 program is a pivotal part of the move towards a more interoperable healthcare system that will give people more control over their healthcare data. “As digital health care evolves, data becomes an important resource that patients can use to improve health outcomes for themselves, and as part of research groups,” CMS said in describing the Blue Button 2.0 program.

“We’re honored that CMS is investing in our team at Ad Hoc to continue developing solutions in digital health care using API and FHIR technologies. This project symbolizes another big step forward in empowering end-users to interact with and control their own data,” said Sam Kussin-Shoptaw, Director of Federal Health at Ad Hoc.

The program includes an API that allows Medicare beneficiaries to connect their claims data to applications, services, and research programs they trust. It also offers simple access for authorized developers to four years of Medicare data for 53 million Medicare beneficiaries. Beyond the API, the program runs a data platform that powers the Beneficiary Claims Data API, Data at the Point of Care, and other critical programs at CMS.

“For more than two years, Fearless has worked with CMS and Ad Hoc to equip beneficiaries, and those involved with their healthcare, with a more efficient way to access personal health information. We believe people matter, so their health does too. The interoperability being done with Blue Button ensures teams throughout CMS can build relationships, and ultimately it will lead to an improved health care delivery system," said Fearless CEO Delali Dzirasa.

“Ellumen appreciates the opportunity to continue the success with FHIR. We look forward to working with our talented partners Ad Hoc and Fearless to bring FHIR to CMS so that Medicare Data Recipients can experience the same optimized interoperability shared by VA and DoD today,” said Mary Vogel, Executive Vice President of Client Solutions at Ellumen.

APIs like Blue Button 2.0 are ways for computers to reliably talk to each other and exchange data, often in very large quantities that would make manually downloading spreadsheets difficult. They’re an increasingly important part of the digital infrastructure federal agencies are building to better serve citizens.

Ad Hoc, Fearless, and Ellumen are honored for CMS’s trust to continue this important work.