BCDA Update: `/Group` endpoint released to production

[Liani Lye]

Hello BCDA Community,

We are excited to announce that we released the `/Group` endpoint to our production environment today!

ABOUT

This iteration of the `/Group` endpoint originated from the three community engagement sessions we held, two with you, and one with the FHIR Community. We could not have done this without you!

• FHIR community discussion, resulting in the spec we built from: https://github.com/HL7/bulk-data/pull/71/files
• 5/20 Office Hour: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/bc-api/PhZnMYHtOPQ/knM4oVg4AwAJ
• 7/15 Office Hour: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/bc-api/3-I_Xtr3fiM/F-dqjvy2BwAJ

You can use the `/Group` endpoint to request ExplanationOfBenefit, Patient, and Coverage data for all beneficiaries. You can also filter the data by date using the `_since` parameter.

The /Group endpoint differs from the `/Patient` endpoint in one key area. When filtering data using `_since` from the `/Group` endpoint, you will receive claims data since the date of your choice for existing beneficiaries AND you will also receive 7 years of historical data for all beneficiaries that are newly attributed to your ACO.

To summarize: `/Patient/$export` and `/Group/all/$export` are slightly different – although you will receive the same claims with both data exports, jobs requested via `/Patient` do not distinguish beneficiaries who were added after the `_since` value, while jobs requested via `/Group` do.

INSTRUCTIONS

You can use `/Group` via cURL or our Swagger platform, as well as write your own client application. Because of the volume of production data, however, we only encourage using Swagger for testing.

Additionally, calls to this endpoint must include a `Group` identifier. The only supported identifier at this time is “all”. The "all" identifier simply designates that you would like to pull claims data for all of your attributed beneficiaries.

cURL command format:

curl -X GET "https://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}"

In the Swagger platform, you interact with the `/Group` endpoint in the same way as the `/Patient` endpoint (`/Patient` example below). With `/Group`, there is an additional "groupId" field:

For the full-sized image, see: https://bcda.cms.gov/assets/img/swagger_walkthrough_06.svg

As you use `/Group`, we – as always – welcome your thoughts and feedback regarding both the new functionality and the user guide instructions!

All my best,

Liani

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Liani Lye

BCDA Community Manager