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                              FOIA (Freedom of Information Act)
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                              SORN 09-70-0521
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SORN 09-70-0521








  
  
    

  
      





**System Name:**"Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities Patient Assessment Instrument (IRF-PAI)," HHS/CMS/CMSO.

**Security Classification:**Level Three Privacy Act Sensitive Data.

**System Location(s):**The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Data Center, 7500 Security Boulevard, North Building, First Floor, Baltimore, Maryland 21244-1850 and at various contractor sites and at CMS Regional Offices.

**Categories of Individuals Covered by the System:**The IRF-PAI will be completed on all Medicare Part A fee-for-service patients who receive services under Part A from an IRF, it may also be completed on Medicare Advantage enrollees.

**Categories of Records in the System:**Records in this system will include, but are not limited to, name, address, date of birth, gender, ethnicity, social security number (SSN), health insurance claim number (HICN), Medicaid number, patient identification number, patient history, diagnosis, and functional prognosis.

**Authority for Maintenance of the System:**Authority for maintenance of the system is given under section 1886(j)(2)(D) of the Social Security Act authorizing the secretary to collect the data necessary to establish and administer the payment system.

**Purpose(s):**The primary purpose of this modified system is to support the IRF prospective payment system (PPS) for payment of the IRF Medicare Part A fee-for-services furnished by the IRF to Medicare beneficiaries. Information maintained in this system will also be disclosed to: (1) Support regulatory, reimbursement, and policy functions performed within the Agency or by a contractor, consultant, or a CMS grantee; (2) assist another Federal and/or state agency, agency of a state government, an agency established by state law, or its fiscal agent, for evaluating and monitoring the quality of IRF health care and contribute to the accuracy of health insurance operations; (3) support research, evaluation, or epidemiological projects related to the prevention of disease or disability, or the restoration or maintenance of health, and for payment related projects; (4) support the functions of Quality Improvement Organizations (QIO); (5) assist other insurers; (6) support the functions of national accrediting organizations; (7) support litigation involving the Agency; (8) combat fraud, waste, and abuse in certain health care programs.

**Routine Uses of Records Maintained in the System, Including Categories of Users and the Purposes of such Uses:**

A. The Privacy Act allows us to disclose information without an individual's consent if the information is to be used for a purpose that is compatible with the purpose(s) for which the information was collected. Any such compatible use of data is known as a "routine use." The proposed routine uses in this system meet the compatibility requirement of the Privacy Act. We are proposing to establish the following routine use disclosures of information maintained in the system:

1. To support agency contractors, consultants, or grantees who have been engaged by the agency to assist in the performance of a service related to this collection and who need to have access to the records in order to perform the activity.

2. To assist another Federal and/or state agency, agency of a state government, an agency established by state law, or its fiscal agent to:

a. Contribute to the accuracy of CMS' proper payment of Medicare benefits,

b. Enable such agency to administer a Federal health benefits program, or as necessary to enable such agency to fulfill a requirement of a Federal statute or regulation that implements a health benefits program funded in whole or in part with Federal funds, and/or

c. Improve the state survey process for investigation of complaints related to health and safety or quality of care and to implement a more outcome oriented survey and certification program.

3. To an individual or organization for research on the utilization of inpatient rehabilitation services as well as evaluation or epidemiological projects related to the prevention of disease or disability, the restoration or maintenance of health, or for understanding and improving payment projects.

4. To support Quality Improvement Organizations (QIO) in connection with review of claims, or in connection with studies or other review activities conducted pursuant to Part B of Title XI of the Act, and in performing affirmative outreach activities to individuals for the purpose of establishing and maintaining their entitlement to Medicare benefits or health insurance plans.

5. To assist insurance companies, third party administrators (TPA), employers, self-insurers, managed care organizations, other supplemental insurers, non-coordinating insurers, multiple employer trusts, group health plans (i.e., health maintenance organization (HMO) or a competitive medical plan (CMP)) with a Medicare contract, or a Medicare-approved health care payment plan (HCPP), directly or through a contractor, and other groups providing protection for their enrollees. Information to be disclosed shall be limited to Medicare entitlement data. In order to receive the information, they must agree to:

a. Certify that the individual about whom the information is being provided is one of its insured or employees, or is insured and/or employed by another entity for whom they serve as a third party administrator;

b. Utilize the information solely for the purpose of processing the individual's insurance claims; and

c. Safeguard the confidentiality of the data and prevent unauthorized access.

6. To assist national accrediting organization(s) whose accredited facilities are presumed to meet certain Medicare requirements for inpatient hospital rehabilitation services (e.g., the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the American Osteopathic Association, or the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities). Information will be released to these organizations for only those facilities that they accredit and that participate in the Medicare program and if they meet the following requirements:

a. Provide identifying information for IRFs that have an accreditation status with the requesting deemed organization;

b. Submission of a finder file identifying beneficiaries/patients receiving IRF services;

c. Safeguard the confidentiality of the data and prevent unauthorized access; and

d. Upon completion of a signed data exchange agreement or a CMS data use agreement.

7. To support the Department of Justice (DOJ), court or adjudicatory body when:

a. The agency or any component thereof, or

b. Any employee of the agency in his or her official capacity, or

c. Any employee of the agency in his or her individual capacity where the DOJ has agreed to represent the employee, or

d. The United States Government is a party to litigation or has an interest in such litigation, and by careful review, CMS determines that the records are both relevant and necessary to the litigation and that the use of such records by the DOJ, court or adjudicatory body is compatible with the purpose for which the agency collected the records.

8. To assist a CMS contractor (including, but not necessarily limited to fiscal intermediaries and carriers) that assists in the administration of a CMS-administered health benefits program, or to a grantee of a CMS-administered grant program, when disclosure is deemed reasonably necessary by CMS to prevent, deter, discover, detect, investigate, examine, prosecute, sue with respect to, defend against, correct, remedy, or otherwise combat fraud, waste, or abuse in such program.

9. To assist another Federal agency or to an instrumentality of any governmental jurisdiction within or under the control of the United States (including any State or local governmental agency), that administers, or that has the authority to investigate potential fraud, waste, or abuse in, a health benefits program funded in whole or in part by Federal funds, when disclosure is deemed reasonably necessary by CMS to prevent, deter, discover, detect, investigate, examine, prosecute, sue with respect to, defend against, correct, remedy, or otherwise combat fraud, waste, or abuse in such programs.

B. *Additional Provisions Affecting Routine Use Disclosures.* To the extent this system contains Protected Health Information (PHI) as defined by HHS regulation "Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information" (45 CFR parts 160 and 164, subparts A and E) 65 FR 82462 (12-28-00), disclosures of such PHI that are otherwise authorized by these routine uses may only be made if, and as, permitted or required by the "Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information." (See 45 CFR 164-512(a) (1)).

In addition, our policy will be to prohibit release even of data not directly identifiable, except pursuant to one of the routine uses or if required by law, if we determine there is a possibility that an individual can be identified through implicit deduction based on small cell sizes (instances where the patient population is so small that individuals could, because of the small size, use this information to deduce the identity of the beneficiary).

**Policies and Practices for Storing, Retrieving, Accessing, Retaining, and Disposing of Records in the System—**

**Storage:**All records are stored on magnetic media.

**Retrievability:**The Medicare records are retrieved by the HICN and SSN.

**Safeguards:**CMS has safeguards in place for authorized users and monitors such users to ensure against unauthorized use. Personnel having access to the system have been trained in the Privacy Act and information security requirements. Employees who maintain records in this system are instructed not to release data until the intended recipient agrees to implement appropriate management, operational and technical safeguards sufficient to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the information and information systems and to prevent unauthorized access.

This system will conform to all applicable Federal laws and regulations and Federal, HHS, and CMS policies and standards as they relate to information security and data privacy. These laws and regulations may apply but are not limited to: the Privacy Act of 1974; the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002; the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986; the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996; the E-Government Act of 2002, the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996; the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, and the corresponding implementing regulations. OMB Circular A-130, Management of Federal Resources, Appendix III, Security of Federal Automated Information Resources also applies. Federal, HHS, and CMS policies and standards include but are not limited to: All pertinent National Institute of Standards and Technology publications; the DHHS Information Systems Program Handbook and the CMS Information Security Handbook.

**Retention and Disposal:**CMS will retain identifiable IRF-PAI data for a total period of 15 years. All claims-related records are encompassed by the document preservation order and will be retained until notification is received from DOJ.

**System Manager(s) and Address(es):**

Director, Survey and Certification Group, Center for Medicaid and State Operations, CMS, Mail Stop C3-20-01, 7500 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21244-1850.

**Notification Procedure:**For purpose of access, the subject individual should write to the system manager who will require the system name, HICN, address, date of birth, and gender, and for verification purposes, the subject individual's name (woman's maiden name, if applicable), and SSN.

Furnishing the SSN is voluntary, but it may make searching for a record easier and prevent delay.

**Record Access Procedures:**For purpose of access, use the same procedures outlined in Notification Procedures above. Requestors should also specify the record contents being sought. (These procedures are in accordance with department regulation 45 CFR 5b.5(a)(2)).

**Contesting Record Procedures:**The subject individual should contact the system manager named above, and reasonably identify the records and specify the information to be contested. State the corrective action sought and the reasons for the correction with supporting justification. (These Procedures are in accordance with Department regulation 45 CFR 5b.70.

**Record Source Categories:**Information for this system is collected from the Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities--Patient Assessment Instrument.

**System Exempted from Certain Provisions of the Act:**None.

                    
  


Content created by Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Division Content last reviewed December 21, 2017 Back to top
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