Hey Philip, I do see the value in having one "web client" for CMS to ensure secure communication as well as standardized user interface. However, the short answer here to why CMS may not be in the position to sponsor a project like that is simply Cost. It will take a lot of development dollars to develop the client itself and the plug-ins needed to make some of the data viewable. You also have to consider that they will need to develop this for Apple products, Windows OS, Linux, mobile devices and other operating system BeOS. Once they develop it, then they will need to have the infrastructure to support it which will make CMS be in the business of IT (supporting installation and ongoing troubleshooting is errors and such from such a product). I do see the importance of creating some sort of standard channel under which all orders, claims and responses go through. The good news is that CMS receives all claim data electronically from almost all participating physicians in the nation. There are of-course still the claims that go through the state Medicaid, but CMS is moving forward with establishing a national health information exchange NHIN to allow for patient health information exchange and registries where the data is in fact exchanging using (CCD/CCR) XML.

Hey Philip, I do see the value in having one "web client" for CMS to ensure secure communication as well as standardized user interface. However, the short answer here to why CMS may not be in the position to sponsor a project like that is simply Cost. It will take a lot of development dollars to develop the client itself and the plug-ins needed to make some of the data viewable. You also have to consider that they will need to develop this for Apple products, Windows OS, Linux, mobile devices and other operating system BeOS. Once they develop it, then they will need to have the infrastructure to support it which will make CMS be in the business of IT (supporting installation and ongoing troubleshooting is errors and such from such a product). I do see the importance of creating some sort of standard channel under which all orders, claims and responses go through. The good news is that CMS receives all claim data electronically from almost all participating physicians in the nation. There are of-course still the claims that go through the state Medicaid, but CMS is moving forward with establishing a national health information exchange NHIN to allow for patient health information exchange and registries where the data is in fact exchanging using (CCD/CCR) XML.