CMS Policies and Guidance
Overview
As CMS works to improve healthcare for millions of Americans, information security and privacy policies ensure that sensitive data is protected. CMS Policies and Guidance are how CMS implements federal requirements from higher-level authorities such as HHS, FISMA, and NIST.
The policy and guidance pages found on this site are approved by the CMS Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), and are regularly reviewed to ensure accuracy. Updates or changes are posted to the blog. If you have a question about security policy at CMS, contact the ISPG Policy team.
All resources in CMS Policies and Guidance
General Information
- About
- Acronyms
- CMS Enterprise Data Encryption (CEDE)
- CMS Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC)
- CMS Information Exchange Agreement (IEA)
- CMS Interconnection Security Agreement (ISA)
- CMS Risk Management Framework (RMF)
- CMS Security and Privacy Handbooks
- CMS Technical Reference Architecture (TRA)
- Email Encryption Requirements at CMS
- ISSO Appointment Letter
- Password Requirements
- Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA)
- Rapid Cloud Review (RCR)
- Role Based Training (RBT)
- Security and Privacy Requirements for IT Procurements
- System Audits
Policies and Handbooks
- Access Control (AC)
- Audit and Accountability (AU)
- Awareness and Training (AT)
- CMS Acceptable Risk Safeguards (ARS)
- CMS Cyber Risk Management Plan (CRMP)
- CMS Guide to Federal Laws, Regulations, and Policies
- CMS Information Systems Security & Privacy Policy (IS2P2)
- CMS Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M) Handbook
- CMS Privacy Program Plan
- CMS Risk Management Framework (RMF): Assess Step
- CMS Risk Management Framework (RMF): Authorize Step
- CMS Risk Management Framework (RMF): Categorize Step
- CMS Risk Management Framework (RMF): Implement Step
- CMS Risk Management Framework (RMF): Monitor Step
- CMS Risk Management Framework (RMF): Prepare Step
- CMS Risk Management Framework (RMF): Select Step
- Configuration Management (CM)
- Identification and Authentication (IA)
- Incident Response (IR)
- Information System Contingency Plan (ISCP) Exercise Handbook
- Information System Contingency Plan (ISCP) Handbook
- Maintenance (MA)
- Media Protection (MP)
- Personnel Security (PS)
- Physical & Environmental Protection (PE)
- Responsible Use of AI within CMS for Cybergeek
- Risk Assessment (RA)
- Risk Management Handbook Chapter 12: Security & Privacy Planning (PL)
- Risk Management Handbook Chapter 15: System & Services Acquisition
- Risk Management Handbook Chapter 2: Awareness and Training (AT)
- Risk Management Handbook Chapter 8: Incident Response (IR)
- RMH Chapter 16: System & Communications Protection
- RMH Chapter 4: Security Assessment & Authorization
- System and Information Integrity (SI)
- System and Services Acquisition (SA)
Tools and Services
Latest articles and updates
- 10/1/2025UpdatesFrom Policy
System & Information Integrity RMH Retirement and the Info Guide Implementation
This blog post introduces the System & Information Integrity Informational Guide
- 9/26/2025UpdatesFrom Policy
Information & Authentication RMH Retirement and Implementation of the Info Guide
We're retiring all the ARS control family handbooks and replacing them with informational guides.
- 8/20/2025UpdatesFrom Zero Trust
Bridging the Gap: Introducing the CMS Zero Trust Forge
An introduction to a new tool to scope granular, least privilege Kion Cloud AWS IAM Policies and Roles