Medicare Fee-for-Service Data Collection System

• PIA Validation (PIA Refresh/Annual Review)
• Other - Since the last PIA submission the Medicare Fee-for-Service Data Collection System   (FFSDCS) system has migrated from Hewlett-Packard (HP) Virtual Data Center (VDC) managed by Perspecta to Amazon (AWS) cloud managed by General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT). Additionally, a third module has been added to the Medicare Fee-for-Service Data Collection System (FFSDCS) system. The Medicare Ground Ambulance Data Collection (GADCS) module adds the ability to collect private payor data from applicable laboratories.

The goal of the new enhanced Fee For Service Data Collection System (FFSDCS) is to provide CMS with a system that can be accessed by applicable Ambulatory Services providers, Drug Manufacturers and laboratories to submit respective data to be used by CMS for calculating and disseminating payment rate limits.  An additional goal of this system is to utilize the shared services offered by CMS. These include but are not limited to, the CMS portal and the Identity Management System (IDM). The following are specific system goals and objectives:

Receive Private Payer data from applicable laboratories.

Calculate the fees for covered tests based on market rates.

Satisfy new legislative requirements Reduce the number of tests whose prices are derived at by either gap-filling or cross walking.

Allow new covered tests to be converted to market rates after 3 quarters of data received.

Relieve CMS from the task of changing some tests on the Fee Schedule (FS). 

The FFSDCS system consists of various modules. Average Sales Price (ASP) is a module under the FFSDCS which allows drug manufacturers to upload data into the ASP module and the mandate for Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS) is developed as a module under FFSDCS. A new module Medicare Ground Ambulance Data Collection (GADCS) has been added as a scope addition under new contract. Collectively, all these modules fall under the umbrella of FFSDCS.

FFSDCS integrates with CMS Enterprise Portal and CMS Identity Management (IDM) Shared services for presentation and authentication services. All external users (laboratories, drug manufacturer representatives and ground ambulatory organizations) and users internal to CMS must acquire an CMS Identity Management Portal (IDM) user ID which is entered into the system to access the FFSDCS. The FFSDCS itself collects and stores information about laboratory organizations, ground ambulance organizations, drug manufacturers, Part B drugs, laboratory tests, ground ambulance organization information like cost, utilization and revenue.
 

PII Data Elements: Tax Identification Number (TIN) of the Laboratory, Taxpayer ID (of the laboratory or manufacturer), Phone Number of the Laboratory, Email, Name (First Name, Last Name) and Mailing Address.  

Non-PII Data Elements: Laboratory Name, National Provider Identifier (NPI) of the Laboratory, CMS Certification Number (CCN) of the laboratory, Provider Transaction Access Number (PTAN) of the laboratory, Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS)  Code of test sold by the laboratory, Volume of each test sold by the laboratory, Price of each test sold by the laboratory, Drug Manufacturer Name, Labeler Code of the drug, National Drug Code, Drug Name (Brand/Generic), Strength of Product, Volume, Number of items per NDC, FDA Application Number, FDA Supplemental Number, FDA Approval Date, FDA Approval Type, Date of First Sale, Expiration date of Final Lot Sold, Manufacturer ASP, Number of ASP Units, Wholesale acquisition cost, Number of CAP Units, Cost (Labor Cost, Total annual compensation for paid EMT/ response staff utilization), Revenue(Total Revenue), Total Expenses, Total Administrative and General Expenses, Total cost for the service, Utilization, Total purchase cost of ground ambulances, Total annual compensation for staff, and Total Facilities Cost. 

The data collected by Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS) module are as follows

Tax Identification Number (TIN) of the Laboratory. 

Laboratory Name.

National Provider Identifier (NPI) of the Laboratory.

CMS Certification Number (CCN) of the laboratory.

Provider Transaction Access Number (PTAN) of the laboratory.

Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) Code of test sold by the laboratory.

Volume of each test sold by the laboratory.

Price of each test sold by the laboratory.

The FFSDCS Average Sales Price (ASP) Module collects Medicare Part B Average Sales Price information for drugs from manufacturers on a quarterly basis. Drug ASP is collected by National Drug Code or Alternate ID. CM crosswalks NDC/Alternate ID data to Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) Codes. Volume weighted calculations are performed on the manufacturer submitted data and published as payment limits by Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) code each quarter for Medicare Part B Drugs. The data collected are as follows:

Drug Manufacturer Name 

Labeler Code of the drug

National Drug Code

Drug Name (Brand/Generic

Strength of Product

Volume

Number of items per NDC

FDA Application Number

FDA Supplemental Number

FDA Approval Date

FDA Approval Type

Date of First Sale

Expiration date of Final Lot Sold

Manufacturer ASP

Number of ASP Units

Wholesale acquisition cost

Number of CAP Units

The FFSDCS ground ambulance providers and suppliers selected to participate in the Medicare Ground Ambulance Data Collection System (GADCS) report cost, utilization, revenue, and other information over a continuous 12-month period (either a calendar or fiscal year). 
 The data collected are as follows:

Cost (Labor Cost, Total annual compensation for paid EMT/ response staff utilization)

Revenue (Total Revenue)

Total Expenses

Total Administrative and General Expenses

Total cost for the service

Utilization 

Total purchase cost of ground ambulances

Total annual compensation for staff

Total Facilities Cost

The data that are stored and collected from users are not available for other end users to view and not published. The data are aggregated and calculated to determine overall payment rate limits for Average Sales Price (ASP), fee schedules for Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS) and to assess the adequacy of Medicare payments for ground ambulance services. 

FFSDCS utilizes the personally identifiable information (PII) (First Name, Last Name, Email) for the submission tracking reports that are within FFSDCS for CMS staff. The FFSDCS Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS) Module collects clinical laboratory test private payor rates and volumes by applicable laboratories. The collected data are aggregated and a weighted median is produced to be published on the annual clinical lab fee schedule. The data collected are as follows:

Tax Identification Number (TIN) of the Laboratory.

Laboratory Name.

National Provider Identifier (NPI) of the Laboratory.

CMS Certification Number (CCN) of the laboratory.

Provider Transaction Access Number (PTAN) of the laboratory.

Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) Code of test sold by the laboratory.

Volume of each test sold by the laboratory.

Price of each test sold by the laboratory.

The FFSDCS Average Sales Price (ASP) Module collects Medicare Part B Average Sales Price information for drugs from manufacturers on a quarterly basis. Drug ASP is collected by National Drug Code (NDC) or Alternate ID. CM crosswalks NDC/Alternate ID data to Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) Codes. Volume weighted calculations are performed on the manufacturer submitted data and published as payment limits by Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) code each quarter for Medicare Part B Drugs. The data collected are as follows:

Drug Manufacturer Name.

Labeler Code of the drug.

National Drug Code.

Drug Name (Brand/Generic).

Strength of Product.

Volume.

Number of items per NDC.

FDA Application Number.

FDA Supplemental Number.

FDA Approval Date.

FDA Approval Type.

Date of First Sale.

Expiration date of Final Lot Sold.

Manufacturer ASP.

Number of ASP Units.

Wholesale acquisition cost.

Number of CAP Units.

The Personally Identifiable Information (PII) collected from IDM is stored in FFSDCS database and it is retrieved programmatically within the system to grant role-based access and generate submission tracking reports for CMS staff role only.    Both modules use (but do not collect itself) PII collected by IDM to identify the laboratory or manufacturer for which the data are collected, and to validate the data submission.  These data include:

Tax Identification Number (TIN) of the Laboratory

Taxpayer ID (of the laboratory or manufacturer).

Phone Number of the Laboratory

Name (First Name, Last Name).

Email address.

Mailing address.

• Name
• E-Mail Address
• Phone Numbers
• Mailing Address
• Other - 1. Tax Identification Number of the Laboratory (TIN). 2. Taxpayer ID (of the laboratory or manufacturer).

• Employees
• Public Citizens
• Vendors/Suppliers/Contractors

09-70-0538: Individuals Authorized Access to CMS Computer Services; this SORN covers data collected through CMS Identity Management (IDM).

• Within the OPDIV
• Other HHS OPDIV

N/A

The FFSDCS System does not require end users to enter Personally Identifiable Information (PII). To gain system access, the user must first enter their Personally Identifiable Information (PII) into the Identity Management (IDM) system in order to obtain an IDM user ID.

 FFSDCS does not collect PII information directly from end users; however, FFSDCS queries the IDM system to grant role-based access and to provide CMS with more information about end users.  The CMS IDM Authentication System allows you to manage end user accounts and access to the FFSDCS System.

• Administrators: Administrators are given access to support day to day operations of the FFSDCS system.
• Contractors: Data Computer Corporation of America (DCCA) contractors are direct CMS contractors using CMS Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards to access CMS network. DCCA Contractors who are responsible for fulfilling certain roles and tasks for the development of the system will have access to user's Personally identifiable information (PII).
• Others - Help Desk are given access to support day to day operations of the FFSDCS users.