Background

Over the past decade, significant increases in demand for information sharing and collaboration have resulted in new federal standards and mandates for more efficient technical infrastructures that deliver higher levels of program performance. Faced with the challenges of an expanding beneficiary population and the task of implementing federal mandates intended to improve U.S. public healthcare, CMS must identify ways to improve the usability, accessibility, and integration of their user services. This will enable more agile and efficient delivery of healthcare services and allow CMS to more rapidly adapt to changes in our national healthcare system.

The essence of the CMS Portal Strategy is this:

  • The user interface presented by a portal is an “Integration Glass,” a single window through which users may see and access information and applications from multiple sources, based on each individual user’s roles and permissions. To ensure consistency, there should be only one source within CMS for each type/collection of information provided through CMS portals. Although multiple CMS portal systems serve specific communities of users, all CMS users will need only one CMS portal to locate and access all CMS content and services relevant to them.

  • A portal combines and displays content and forms from multiple applications and information sources, supports users with navigation and cross-enterprise search tools, supports simplified sign-on, and uses role-based access and personalization to present each user with only relevant content and applications. CMS content and applications from across the enterprise must be designed to fit into this structured environment, and the environment itself must be structured to present users with a common and intuitive look, format, and navigation tools.

  • All CMS stakeholders involved in portals, portal-based applications, or providing content for portals must work toward a shared enterprise vision of the CMS “Integration Glass” for presentation to users.

Portals are one of several components for which CMS is evolving enterprise strategies to meet these rising challenges. The strategic importance of portals to the CMS enterprise is apparent because:

  • As user interfaces and end consumers of Shared Services, portals complement the CMS enterprise Shared Services Strategy and unify geographically dispersed services and users through a common access point.

  • An enterprise approach leverages common CMS user identities for all portals, simplifying access to information, services, applications, communication and collaboration tools, social media, and other emerging technologies. Portal benefits include enhanced productivity, efficiency, workflows, communication, and exchange of ideas among CMS user communities.

  • Portals help shape users’ impression of the agency and its programs. Portals provide a “face” of CMS to users, whether they be the public, beneficiaries, providers, other business partners, other agencies, or even CMS’s own staff and contractors.

  • As critical points in the fabric of CMS’s applications and services, portals provide opportunity and infrastructure for implementing and enforcing certain standards of security, accessibility, metadata, technologies, and procedures.

The CMS Office of Information Technology, and in particular, the Chief Information Officer, the Chief Technology Officer, and the Chief Enterprise Architect (CEA), sponsor the task to create a viable and effective portal program.

Purpose

This chapter describes major facets of portal technologies and the business applications of portals. It provides strategic guidance in the form of high-level goals and guiding principles for quality, performance, and relationships among CMS portals, and describes some options to consider in every facet of tactical planning.

This chapter does not provide specific tactical guidance but leaves tactical planning to the stakeholders responsible for each CMS portal and for CMS portal content. Any tactical effort involving a CMS portal must align to this strategy.

The CMS Portal Strategy generates awareness, discussion, and support throughout CMS for implementing an enterprise portal strategy and vision across all lines of Agency business. This strategy is a first step toward introducing a high-level framework that encourages development of business and technology portals to promote operational efficiencies, meet increasing demands for healthcare information, and align more closely with CMS business processes.

Scope

The CMS Portal Strategy is an enterprise-wide initiative that encompasses both internal and external users of CMS data and services. This provides a framework for CMS and contractors by defining terminology, concepts, and guidance as the initiative moves forward. The strategy does not provide a detailed road map for CMS portals, which will be developed in a separate document.