CMS began loading the prescription drug claims data it has been collecting since January into what it calls an Integrated Data Repository, said John Evangelist, CMS director of integrated data and program management. The agency plans to load all of the 2006 prescription data and information from hospital claims filed in 2005 and 2006 -- 16TB worth -- into the warehouse by next spring, he added. After that is done, business users will determine what data -- and how much of it -- will be loaded next to provide the analysis needed by the agency, according to Evangelist. The CMS now houses 100TB of data in multiple disparate warehouses.

"There is not a very easy way...to look at all this data without pulling it together," he said. "The overall goal is to solidify a single platform for the claims information that we have and integrate it with some other data."

Linking the data will allow users to navigate the warehouse, looking at all the information about a beneficiary or a health care provider, Evangelist said. Integrating the data into a single source also will allow the CMS to better identify potential fraud and abuse because "people can begin to get a sense for a single version of the truth," Evangelist said.

The CMS is expected to announce this month a new contract worth more than US$50 million to Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Corp. for a new program called OnePI (Program Integrity) that will mine the data in the enterprise warehouse for fraud and abuse.

CMS is building the data repository with data warehouse technology from Teradata, which is also a subcontractor on the EDS deal. The agency also is using ETL tools from Informatica Inc. and BI software from Cognos Inc. as part of the enterprise warehouse project, according to Evangelist.