And suddenly, HHS announces the creation of a new office at CMS, the "Office of Health Technology & Products," the OHTP. See the presentation at 91 Fed Reg 35478-35482 Find it here:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-06-11/pdf/2026-11743.pdf
See also coverage at HealthCareDive by Emily Olsen, here.
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AI CORNER (Chat GPT)
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CMS Creates a New Office of Health Technology and Products: Digital Rails
CMS has created a new Office of Health Technology and Products — OHTP — by formal notice in the Federal Register. The office was approved by the Secretary of HHS on June 9, 2026, and became effective that same day. The detailed notice appears in the June 11, 2026 Federal Register, here: Federal Register / GovInfo PDF.
For Medicare watchers, the most important point is that this does not appear to be a new coverage, coding, or pricing shop for medical technologies. Rather, it is a high-level CMS technology and product organization. (Read it as: "Office of Health Technology and ^Health Technology Products.") Its portfolio includes CMS digital products, beneficiary tools, provider and state-facing systems, claims and payment platform modernization, provider directory infrastructure, NPPES, PECOS, identity and trust services, Medicaid and CHIP technology, interoperability, open standards, and CMS-wide artificial intelligence strategy.
The Federal Register notice is detailed. It says OHTP will provide enterprise leadership for CMS healthcare technology modernization, digital products, and transformation of platforms and services supporting Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and other CMS programs. At the same time, the notice repeatedly emphasizes that the office must coordinate with the CMS Chief Information Officer and remain subject to CIO-led IT governance, cybersecurity, enterprise architecture, acquisition oversight, digital service delivery, customer experience, and public digital experience responsibilities.
The Eight Operating Components
The Federal Register notice lists these eight operating components under OHTP:
Open Source Program Group
Standards & Interoperability Group
Division of Data and Interoperability Platforms
Division of Policy
Product Development Group
Division of Core Products
Division of External Products
Digital Service at CMS
What Each Component Will Do
Open Source Program Group.
This group is intended to bring private-sector technology practices, software engineering talent, product managers, and open-source methods into CMS and HHS. The notice emphasizes reusable software, open-source guidance and contribution models, reduced duplication, shared platforms, open standards, and alignment with federal source-code and acquisition policies.
Standards & Interoperability Group.
This group will lead CMS’s enterprise interoperability strategy, with an emphasis on API-based, patient-centered, secure, scalable health data exchange. It is also described as CMS’s principal authority for interoperability strategy, implementation, policy, and standards alignment, including the evolution of administrative transaction standards.
Division of Data and Interoperability Platforms.
This division will build and operate the technical platforms that make interoperability real, including FHIR-based APIs and data exchange platforms. It will run pilots, support implementation, monitor adoption and performance, help beneficiaries and authorized entities securely access and share health data, and promote reuse through shared services and open-source technologies.
Division of Policy.
This division will develop interoperability policy, regulations, and sub-regulatory guidance across clinical and administrative data exchange. It will review legislation, work with ONC and standards development organizations, address electronic transactions, code sets, and identifiers, and provide outreach and technical assistance to providers, payers, technology developers, beneficiaries, and other stakeholders.
Product Development Group.
This is the main product delivery organization for OHTP. Its job is to apply modern product management, human-centered design, agile delivery, user research, product analytics, A/B testing, shared design systems, roadmaps, OKRs, release management, and lifecycle oversight to CMS’s digital product portfolio.
Division of Core Products.
This division manages CMS’s internal and enterprise technology platforms — the systems that process and power CMS programs. The notice specifically includes Medicare claims and payment processing systems, shared APIs and data services, provider-facing infrastructure such as the National Provider Directory and associated systems, and Medicaid and CHIP technology modernization.
Division of External Products.
This division manages CMS’s beneficiary-facing and public-facing digital products. The notice specifically names Medicare.gov and Medicare Plan Finder, and emphasizes accessible, secure, user-centered public digital experiences, customer experience, strategic industry partnerships, and modernization of public-facing technical systems.
Digital Service at CMS.
This component will conduct short-term discovery sprints and high-impact technology projects across CMS and HHS. It is intended to provide surge capacity, rapid user-centered delivery, sprint reports and recommendations, modern software practices, flexible hosting, automated testing and deployment, reusable security and privacy processes, and support for AI, interoperability, Medicaid/CHIP modernization, and beneficiary-facing services.
Amy Gleason
The Federal Register notice does not name the official who will lead OHTP. However, Emily Olsen at Healthcare Dive reports that the new office will be led by Amy Gleason, serving as CMS deputy administrator and chief product officer. Olsen also reports that Gleason has worked as a CMS strategic advisor and has spearheaded the agency’s Health Tech Ecosystem initiative. See: Healthcare Dive, Emily Olsen, June 12, 2026.
Gleason is not a traditional Medicare payment-policy figure. She is better understood as a health-technology operator and patient-data advocate. Public biographies describe her as a former nurse, former U.S. Digital Service official, former chief product officer at Russell Street Ventures, and leader of digital health work involving Main Street Health and CareBridge. A Health IT Summit bio says she worked on the national COVID-19 database, PRIME, and Data at the Point of Care, and that her work has been shaped by her family’s experience navigating care for a daughter with a rare disease. See: Amy Gleason bio, Health IT Summit 2025. AP has also profiled Gleason in connection with her role as acting administrator of the U.S. DOGE Service and her long-running interest in health record sharing. See: AP profile of Amy Gleason.
This background fits the structure of the new office. OHTP reads less like a Medicare reimbursement office and more like an attempt to put product management, data liquidity, software reuse, APIs, patient access, and digital infrastructure at the center of CMS operations.
Not the Same as TCPG
CMS already has a separate group that is much closer to the world of new medical technology coding and pricing: the Technology, Coding, and Pricing Group, or TCPG, in the Center for Medicare. CMS’s current medtech guide describes TCPG as responsible for DMEPOS and ambulance policy, drug and biological product data collection, CLFS data collection, and determinations on applications for NTAP, OPPS drug and device pass-through payments, ADLT designation under the CLFS, TPNIES, and TDAPA. See: CMS Guide for Medical Technology Companies — Overview of CMS Groups.
CMS’s leadership page for Jason Bennett states that he is Acting Deputy Director of the Center for Medicare and Director of TCPG. It describes TCPG as a focal point for manufacturers to engage with Medicare fee-for-service on coding and payment for new products, as well as other Medicare payment activities. See: CMS profile of Jason Bennett.
As far as the Federal Register notice shows, OHTP does not displace TCPG. The notice says OHTP must coordinate across CMS technology portfolios while “respecting Center and Office authorities,” and that CIO-led enterprise IT governance remains with the CMS CIO. That language strongly suggests that OHTP is additive and cross-cutting, not a replacement for the existing Medicare coverage, coding, and pricing machinery.
There is one nuance. OHTP will have responsibility for modernization of claims and payment systems, and the Division of Policy will touch administrative transactions, code sets, and identifiers in the interoperability context. That could matter over time.
Beyond the Printed Page: What This Signals
The new office is a signal of priorities. CMS is saying, in a formal organizational notice, that digital infrastructure, interoperability, AI, beneficiary experience, provider directories, claims system modernization, open source, and product discipline are not side projects. They are enterprise priorities.
For industry, the first practical lesson is not to overread the word “products.” In this notice, “products” usually means CMS digital products — Medicare.gov, Plan Finder, claims platforms, APIs, identity tools, provider directories, and internal systems. It does not mean FDA-regulated products, diagnostics, devices, or new Medicare payment categories.
The second lesson is that CMS is likely to become more assertive around the digital rails of healthcare. Watch for movement around the National Provider Directory, Medicare.gov identity modernization, beneficiary-facing data access, FHIR-based APIs, prior authorization infrastructure, payer-provider data exchange, and administrative transaction modernization. These are not glamorous compared with a new coverage pathway, but they can have enormous operational impact.
The third lesson is that AI is now embedded in CMS organizational language. OHTP is charged with enterprise AI strategy and implementation across CMS digital products and platforms, as well as advising CMS leadership on AI opportunities, risks, and governance. In the next 6-12 months, it will be important to see whether this remains focused on internal productivity and beneficiary tools, or whether it begins to affect program integrity, claims review, quality measurement, prior authorization, or payment operations.
Several watch-outs follow.
First, will OHTP produce visible products? The most convincing evidence will not be speeches. It will be new APIs, public GitHub repositories, sprint reports, usable beneficiary tools, improvements to Medicare.gov and Plan Finder, better PECOS/NPPES workflows, provider directory progress, and measurable reduction in technical friction.
Second, how will OHTP interact with the CIO, the Center for Medicare, CAG, TCPG, HAPG, Medicaid, and CPI? The Federal Register notice is careful to preserve existing authorities. But ambitious technology offices often become influential because they control platforms, data flows, implementation timelines, and user experience, even when they do not formally control policy.
Third, how will CMS balance open-source aspirations with cybersecurity, procurement law, contractor relationships, and legacy systems? The notice reads like a modern product charter, but CMS still operates in a large federal acquisition and contractor environment. Implementation will be the test.
Fourth, how will industry partnerships be governed? CMS’s Health Tech Ecosystem is explicitly collaborative and private-sector-facing. That may accelerate innovation, but it also raises predictable questions about standards, neutrality, privacy, security, procurement boundaries, and who gets to shape the rails everyone else must use.
Fifth, will administrative interoperability finally move from aspiration to machinery? The notice’s references to administrative transactions, code sets, identifiers, APIs, and burden reduction are worth watching closely. Prior authorization, provider directory accuracy, payer-provider exchange, and claims-related data flows are all potential pressure points.
The bottom line: OHTP is probably not a new Medicare payment doorway for lab tests, devices, or digital health products. But it may become very important for the infrastructure on which Medicare and Medicaid increasingly depend. For alert readers, the question is not whether OHTP will pay for new technology. The question is whether it will change the systems through which CMS identifies providers, authenticates users, exchanges data, processes claims, governs AI, and presents Medicare to the public.
