BCDA Update: Second iteration of `/Group` test feature released to sandbox

[Liani Lye]

Hello BCDA Community,

The BCDA team has released a second iteration of the `/Group` endpoint to the Sandbox environment! We refined our approach to the /Group endpoint based on feedback from BCDA users and the FHIR community (https://github.com/HL7/bulk-data/pull/71/files). Although it is not yet a part of the bulk FHIR specification, this implementation allows us to gather feedback from you and the FHIR community so that we can refine our proposal to the bulk FHIR spec.

In this second iteration of the /Group endpoint, you can use ‘/Group’ in combination with the _since parameter to retrieve historical data for newly attributed beneficiaries and incremental claims data for existing beneficiaries with just one API call. This reduces both BCDA data's time-to-download, as well as the load on your organization’s API infrastructure. Additionally, this feature can be applied to all resource types: Patient, Coverage, and ExplanationOfBenefit.

On Tuesday, July 15th from 2-3pm EDT, the BCDA Team will be holding office hours with production and prospective users to solicit community feedback on the latest iteration of the`/Group` endpoint. BCDA is going through a number of major and exciting updates in the next few months, and we appreciate your continued cooperation and curiosity!

INSTRUCTIONS

To demonstrate the functionality of the /Group endpoint in the BCDA Sandbox environment, there are 10 newly attributed beneficiaries for each synthetic ACO size. These are the same synthetic beneficiaries added during the first iteration of `/Group`. The new data simulate a scenario in which 10 beneficiaries, who were not attributed to the synthetic ACO in 2/1/20, are now attributed in 4/14/20. (Because this is sandbox data, these dates were arbitrarily chosen; production data will not include arbitrary dates.)

You can use `/Group` via cURL or our Swagger platform, as well as write your own client application.

cURL command format:

curl -X GET "https://sandbox.bcda.cms.gov/api/v1/Group/all/$export?_since=2020-02-13T08%3A00%3A00.000-05%3A00" -H "accept: application/fhir+json" -H "Prefer: respond-async" -H "Authorization: Bearer {token}"

We are excited to discuss your thoughts about the API and how we can best meet your needs and expectations. We will send conferencing details for the BCDA office hour session as 7/15 approaches.

Looking forward to speaking with everyone!

All my best,

Liani

-- 

Liani Lye

BCDA Community Manager

[Liani Lye]

Hello BCDA Community,

Our office hour session is this Wednesday, July 15th at 2pm ET!

Please join us at this Zoom room: https://zoom.us/j/92731145452?pwd=RnVLS0hoVStkVHRocnhkVzJQYkVwUT09

Here is the full joining information:

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We look forward to hearing your questions and experiences!

[Jacob Halpert]

Hello Liani,

Thanks for all your excellent work.

Question on if your Swagger guidance on how Group/all/$export works using _since (where all historical are returned for newly attributed beneficiaries, while only incremental are returned for previously attributed beneficiaries) also applies to the export functions of each Resource when they are called individually (Patient/$export, Coverage/$export, and EOB/$export)

• Initiates a job to collect data from the Blue Button API for your ACO. The only Group identifier supported by the system is all. The all identifier returns data for the group of all patients attributed to the requesting ACO. If used when specifying _since (in sandbox only, but will soon be available in production): all claims data which has been updated since the specified date will be returned for beneficiaries which have been attributed to the ACO since before the specified date; and all historical claims data will be returned for beneficiaries which have been newly attributed to the ACO since the specified date.

Best,

Jake

[Liani Lye]

Hello Jacob,

Thank you for your patience!

Using _since in the /Group endpoint for the Patient, Coverage, and ExplanationOfBenefit resources will yield the most recent claims data for previously attributed beneficiaries, as well as 7 years of historical data for newly attributed beneficiaries. When using _since with the /Group endpoint, you will achieve this same outcome for any combination of FHIR resources you choose to retrieve.

There is currently no way to retrieve only 7 years of historical data for newly attributed beneficiaries without also retrieving the most recent claims data using the _since parameter.

[Jacob Halpert]

Many thanks for elucidation, Liani — is this feature now released to production as well?

Best

Jake

 

 

 

On Jul 21, 2020, at 9:50 AM, 'Liani Lye' via Developer Group - Beneficiary Claims Data API <bc-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



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[Liani Lye]

Hello Jake,

Thanks for your question!  /Group is currently only available in the sandbox environment.  We want to use the sandbox offering to refine the feature so that it truly meets the community's needs, before releasing it to our production environment.

What were your experiences using this second iteration of /Group?

[Liani Lye]

Hello BCDA Community,

Thank you for attending our office hour! Your questions and feedback are invaluable as we continue to build BCDA. The document I've attached lists participants' questions and answers, as well as the links that were shared in Zoom chat, so that everyone can reference the information.

Please don't hesitate to reach out here with additional thoughts, questions, or ideas on additional resources that would help you adopt BCDA.