CMS Announces Its Health Tech Ecosystem Initiative
July 30, 2025 – At a White House event titled “Make Health Tech Great Again,” the administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced their vision for a CMS Health Technology Ecosystem. This voluntary initiative aims to build a patient-centric digital health ecosystem to improve access to health data and digital tools and enable secure data exchange. Private sector companies can opt in and commit to 1) empowering patients with easy access to their digital medical records that third-party apps can also utilize and allowing them to transfer their information from one doctor to another, regardless of network or system and 2) ensuring providers, payers, and technology developers can exchange data securely and efficiently.
The administration emphasized the need to modernize the nation’s digital health infrastructure and focus on consumer preferences with phrases like “tearing down digital walls,” “returning power to patients,” and “kill the clipboard.”
How the Ecosystem Will Work
Secure Data Exchange between Patients and Providers
At the event, CMS unveiled a new CMS Interoperability Framework with technical criteria based on FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standards and modern identity protocols. The framework’s objective is to provide secure data exchange that will be accessible to all network types: health information networks and exchanges, Electronic Health Records (EHR), and tech platforms. Patients would have access to their claims, explanation of benefits, prior authorizations from current or past payers, and an audit log of their data, including who has accessed their data, when, and why.
Industry participants must agree to be displayed as a CMS Aligned Network, update the national provider directory, provide metrics on network queries, and support queries across federated networks for patient records. CMS Aligned Networks are likely to include participation by Qualified Health Information Networks (QHINs), health information exchanges, health plans, and providers.
Patient Access to Digital Tools
In addition to interoperability, the ecosystem initiative calls for new tools that would use secure digital identity credentials to obtain medical records from CMS Aligned Networks and deliver key services including:
- Management of diabetes and obesity
- Utilization of conversational AI assistants to help patients check symptoms, navigate care options, and schedule appointments
- Digital check-in methods that replace paper intake forms
Private Industry Commitments
- 60+ of the biggest names in health tech (including Amazon, Anthropic, Apple, Google, and OpenAI) have committed to join the initiative and deliver results by Q1 2026
Data Exchange
- 21 networks (including key intermediaries like CommonWell and Carequality) pledged to meet the criteria to become CMS Aligned Networks
- 11 health systems and providers (including Cleveland Clinic, CVS Health, and UnitedHealth Group) committed to participating
- 7 EHR vendors (including Epic, Oracle Health, Athenahealth, and eClinicalWorks) committed to eliminate paper-based workflows and facilitate data exchange
Digital Tools
- 30+ tech and app developers (including Amazon, Apple, Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, Noom, Haven, Zocdoc, Samsung, Oura, Curai, Virta Health, Welldoc, and more) have committed to developing patient-facing apps to manage diabetes and obesity, use conversational AI agents, and replace paper intake forms with digital check-in
For a full list of industry commitments to the CMS Health Technology Ecosystem initiative, visit the Early Adopters page on CMS.gov.
CMS Infrastructure Commitments
In a press release, CMS committed to do its part for the ecosystem. As early as the first quarter of 2026, it will respond to patient and provider queries and share Blue Button claims data through CMS Aligned Networks. Blue Button 2.0 is a standards-based application programming interface (API) that enables beneficiaries to share their Medicare Parts A, B, and D data with third-party applications, doctors, research programs, etc. CMS has also agreed to add an app library to Medicare.gov later in 2025. In addition to these announcements, CMS provided updates of ongoing efforts to support a new digital health ecosystem with a consumer focus.
Timeline
2025
- CMS to add an app library to Medicare.gov in H2 2025
2026
- Q1 results deadline for private industry commitments to the digital health ecosystem
- By July 4th, 2026, networks must provide access to data through FHIR APIs, including FHIR Bulk data exchange; return chart notes and clinical documents as FHIR attachments; and, give appointment and encounter notifications for outpatient, telehealth, emergency department and inpatient encounters using FHIR subscriptions
The July 30 CMS press release “White House, Tech Leaders Commit to Create Patient-Centric Healthcare Ecosystem” is archived in the Newsroom on CMS.gov.
