(2) SPECIFIC PROTECTIONS.—
(A) ENCRYPTION.—The Secretary shall en-
sure that any identification number of a bene-
ficiary to which a claim relates is encrypted in 
a consistent fashion in order to access data with 
respect to that beneficiary for claims for items 
and services under each applicable part of title 
XVIII. 
(B) DELETION OF PERSONAL IDENTIFYING 
INFORMATION.—The Secretary shall ensure 
that the data omits the name, date of birth, 
street address and the last two applicable postal 
codes of each of the beneficiaries. 
(3) EXCLUSION
OF
CERTAIN
DATA.—In the 
case of a provider of services or a supplier that sub-
mits a low volume of claims to the Secretary for 
items or services furnished to medicare beneficiaries, 
or in the case of certain rare medical conditions or 
treatments, the Secretary may exclude data with re-
spect to such claims, conditions, or treatment from 
a request under subsection (a) in order to protect 
patient privacy. 
(c) FORM OF REQUEST.—Requests under subsection 
(a) shall require such information, and be in such form, 
as the Secretary determines appropriate. Such a request
shall include the applicable period and areas for which 
such claims data is requested. 
(d) FEE.—The Secretary may require the payment 
of a fee by each group health plan that submits a request 
under subsection (a) to offset administrative costs in-
curred by the Secretary in carrying out this section. 
(e) AUTHORITY TO CONTRACT.—If the Secretary de-
termines that data could be made available more promptly, 
the Secretary may enter into arrangements with private 
entities to merge data for claims under each part of title 
XVIII of the Social Security Act. The Secretary shall en-
sure that a unique encryption applies to each beneficiary 
encryption. 
SEC. 302. INCORPORATION OF MEASURES OF HEALTH 
CARE PRACTITIONER PERFORMANCE IN FED-
ERAL PROGRAMS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of De-
fense, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the 
Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and the Director of the In-
dian Health Service shall incorporate, to the extent prac-
ticable, measures of health care practitioner performance 
endorsed by the National Quality Forum into the health 
care programs of the Department of Defense, the Depart-
ment of Health and Human Services, the Department of
Veterans Affairs, and the Indian Health Service, respec-
tively for the purpose of improving program quality and 
efficiency. 
(b) REPORT
TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 18 
months after the date of the enactment of this Act, each 
Federal official specified in subsection (a) shall submit a 
report to the Congress on the results of the official’s ac-
tivities under this section. 
SEC. 303. INTERIM CLAIMS-BASED PRACTITIONER PER-
FORMANCE DATABASE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than the date that is 
18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Secretary shall establish a claims-based practitioner 
performance database that comprises de-indentified claims 
data under the medicare program under title XVIII of the 
Social Security Act and claims data from any group health 
plan that voluntarily submits de-identified health care 
claims data to the Secretary for such purpose. 
(b) REQUIREMENT FOR PARTICIPATION BY FEHB 
PLANS.—The Director of the Office of Personnel Manage-
ment shall require, as a condition under chapter 89 of title 
5, United States Code, that each plan under contract with 
the Director under such chapter submit de-identified 
claims data to practitioner performance database.