HHS CMS - Website Development and Operations - MRAS

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the General Services Administration (GSA), is conducting market research to support the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in enhancing its open data platform, data.CMS.gov. This initiative is part of a broader effort by CMS to ensure health care coverage for over 100 million Americans by making its vast amounts of collected data more accessible and usable. The goal is to drive innovation and promote high-value, person-centered care by improving access to CMS data.

The project, known as the Data.CMS.gov: Development and Operations of CMS's Open Data Platform, seeks a contractor to develop, operate, and maintain this platform. The work involves ensuring that CMS data is easy to discover, access, and use by enhancing the website's functionality and expanding the number of hosted data products and tools. This effort began with user research under the Website Data Discoverability and Stakeholder Engagement initiative in 2018. Users expressed difficulties in finding CMS data due to its scattered presence across various websites. They requested a consistent design across all data products, simplified language for varying levels of familiarity with CMS data, easy identification of updates to data products, access to comprehensive documentation, and opportunities for feedback.

Based on these findings, OEDA redesigned the site with improved navigation structures and search capabilities. A beta version was launched in January 2021 with ongoing improvements based on user feedback until its full launch in July 2021. Currently, eight different CMS components contribute over 170 unique Uncontrolled Unclassified Information (UUCI) data products covering diverse topics such as program use, provider characteristics, beneficiary characteristics, among others. These datasets are updated at various intervals weekly, monthly, quarterly and can be accessed in multiple formats including CSVs or PDFs.

The contractor's role will involve providing different levels of development support tailored to the needs of each dataset owner within CMS. The contractor will ensure that users can download datasets easily or analyze them using interactive tools provided on the platform. Additionally, there will be a focus on delivering artificial intelligence solutions where applicable while maintaining open source principles allowing third-party access for further innovation.