Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has announced it completed testing for the data hub it launched to allow individuals to apply for health benefits under the Affordable Care Act.
CMS said it has received security authorization for the Federal Services Data Hub platform and that it is on schedule for public use on October 1st.
Security concerns have been raised in regard to how the system will protect personally identifiable information. CMS said it plans to use a continuous monitoring model for its marketplace systems that will utilize sensors and active event monitoring to quickly identify and take action against irregular behavior and unauthorized system changes that could indicate a potential incident.
CMS explained in a statement that the Hub would also verify information used to determine eligibility for enrollment in qualified health plans and insurance affordability programs, and provide one connection to the common federal data sources needed to verify consumer application information for income, citizenship, immigration status, access to minimum essential coverage, etc.
CMS says the Hub was designed to minimize security risk by developing a system that does not retain or store PII, and that istead, the system will verify data against information contained in already existing, secure and trusted federal and state databases.
The Hub will have security and privacy agreements with all federal agencies and states connecting to the Hub, including the Social Security Administration, the IRS, DHS, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Medicare, TRICARE, the Peace Corps and OPM, according to CMS.
