The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued a Sources Sought notice seeking industry feedback on two work areas tied to the National Provider Directory: ground truth datasets and data aggregation, quality, and assurance services.
The effort is part of CMS market research and acquisition planning for a trusted, accurate, and comprehensive source of healthcare provider information. CMS is looking at how authoritative provider data can support improved care coordination, reduced administrative burden, stronger transparency, and better oversight across the healthcare system.
The draft scope focuses on two connected functions. Work Area A would establish and maintain access to authoritative external provider data sources, including licensure, credentialing, pharmacy, hospital, accreditation, payer, and provider network participation data. Work Area E would provide data aggregation, enrichment, and quality assurance services to validate data entering the National Provider Directory pipeline and data published through the public-facing directory.
A notable feature of the draft approach is CMS’s emphasis on license-free output. CMS states that published National Provider Directory data must be freely reusable without downstream licensing obligations, while allowing some source fields to be used internally only when publication is restricted. The draft also describes a closed-loop quality model in which findings from data quality reviews would inform future sourcing decisions.
The notice should interest healthcare data firms, provider directory vendors, credentialing and licensure data sources, health IT companies, AI and data quality firms, payer data specialists, and contractors with experience managing large-scale provider datasets. CMS is using the RFI to assess market capabilities, refine the draft Statement of Objectives, and inform a potential future solicitation.
Read more here.
Solicitation Number: 261007
