Thursday, September 6, 2018

Very Brief Blog: CMS Updates Public Meeting Video: Streaming Yes, Youtube Archive No


  • CMS has a Youtube channel, CMSHHSgov, available here.
  • Through 2017, CMS both streamed and archived video of major meetings.  
  • The new policy appears to be streaming-only and no archive.

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For the last several years, CMS has both streamed live its major medical policy meetings (such as MEDCACs and summer CLFS advisory panel meetings), and also, left them archived on Youtube.

See, for example, a summer 2017 MEDCAC here, and a summer 2017 CLFS meeting here.  An additional feature was that the live subtitling was preserved and could be pulled as a sort of transcript by tapping the "three horizontal dots" symbol below the video and clicking "open transcript."

So far as I can tell, the new policy for 2018 is more limited.  CMS continues to stream the meetings - which means, you could record or screen-grab them* - but CMS doesn't seem to post them as an archive any longer.

For example, unless you were in the office to watch and record the MedCAC on oncology outcomes a few weeks ago, on the day it was being streamed, you'll have to wait (potentially months) for CMS to post a transcript of it (assuming they will).  Other meetings, like CLFS meetings, never get a transcript.

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* For example,  I am inferring that MolecularMD captured and posted on Youtube the CMS webstream of its own 18 minute presentation and Q&A on June 25, 2018.  Here.  But the other five hours of presentations are gone.  I'd be happy if anyone can find the whole day's show ion the internet and point it out to me.