CPHIMS Study Guide 2026

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers the Medicare program and works in partnership with state governments to administer Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and health insurance portability standards. Its policies on reimbursement and conditions of participation have a significant impact on the entire healthcare industry.

The CommonWell-Carequality Bridge connects the two largest national interoperability networks, enabling their combined participants to exchange health information regardless of which network they belong to.

Predictive analytics applies statistical models and machine learning to historical data to forecast future events, such as identifying sepsis risk before it develops.

IT governance is the framework of processes and structures that ensures the effective and efficient use of IT in enabling an organization to achieve its goals. Its primary function is strategic alignment, ensuring that IT decisions support business objectives, manage risk, and provide value. While the other options are important IT functions, they fall under the umbrella of IT management rather than the strategic oversight of governance.

Stratifying outcomes by demographic factors allows organizations to identify disparities in care and take targeted action to promote health equity.

A data dictionary is a centralized repository of information about data, including its definition, format, structure, and relationships. It specifies how data elements are named, what type of data they hold (e.g., text, number, date), their length, and any constraints. This ensures consistency and standardization of information as it is entered and stored within a computer system.