Health and Human Services Celebrates the United States’ Entry into the Open Government Partnership
By Todd Park, Chief Technology Officer, HHS
The Open Government Initiative has created an unprecedented opportunity for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to promote transparency, collaboration, and participation in causes important to our mission. Under President Obama’s leadership, HHS has taken extensive steps to advance open government through more than 80 activities articulated in our Open Government Plan (http://www.hhs.gov/open). Among the most important of these activities are our efforts to promote increased access to and innovation utilizing our data resources, improved responses to Freedom of Information Act requests, and promotion of greater participation in our mission activities through new media applications.
As President Obama signs the Open Government Partnership declaration today, HHS is proud to highlight some of the ways in which we have advanced America’s domestic open government agenda and created a more efficient and effective government through greater transparency, participation and collaboration. Our Health Data Initiative has made substantial progress improving public access to HHS’s vast data resources and helped to catalyze expanding use of these resources by innovators across the country through an extensive campaign of public competitions, “code-a-thons,” and “meetups.” Over 250 major data resources can now be found at Health.Data.gov and freely accessed by anyone. This data is being harnessed by a rapidly growing array of innovators and entrepreneurs to create products and services that help consumers find the right care providers, doctors deliver better and safer care, employers promote health and wellness, mayors make better-informed decisions, and much more – while also helping to create jobs of the future in the process.
HHS is also proud to partner with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense to launch the “Blue Button” initiative, allowing Medicare beneficiaries, veterans, and military beneficiaries to download electronic copies of their own claims or personal health information for the first time. Over 400,000 veterans and beneficiaries have downloaded their own data using Blue Button.
HHS is also excited to have advanced the ability of consumers to take control of their own health care through HealthCare.gov, a new website that enables Americans to easily search for health insurance options that may be right for them, leveraging the most comprehensive inventory of private insurance plan and public health coverage program information ever assembled. HealthCare.gov invites continuous online feedback from users, helping us evolve the site in a way that best serves the needs of the public.
Our Open Government strategy is about more than just making data available to the public. We are proactively engaging the creativity and energy of the American people to unlock the power of our data to deliver maximum benefit. To that end, today, HHS is re-committing to work under Open Government principles. Building on the success of the Health Data Initiative to date, we will continue to improve the depth and quality of open data resources available on Health.Data.gov. In addition, in collaboration with a new public-private partnership, the Health Data Consortium, we will continue to actively support the growth of the open “ecosystem” of innovators and entrepreneurs who are utilizing our data to help improve health and create jobs. While we are still at the beginning of this journey, we are very excited that momentum continues to build for these activities, and very much look forward to the path ahead!
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