Health insurers now can use the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud to host Affordable Care Act (ACA) data they are required to share with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Insurers could pay between $6,000 and $24,000 annually for AWS records storage.

ACA data that can be stored in the AWS cloud ultimately will be used to determine how much money insurers owe, or are owed.

Data will be collected as part of the ACA’s risk adjustment and reinsurance program that is designed to spread out risk among competing insurers and prevent price increases in the act’s first three years.

CMS noted it plans to start collecting risk adjustment and reinsurance program data from insurers this fall.

Insurers do not necessarily have to leverage the AWS cloud to collect data, CMS said. They also can use “edge servers,” which ACA IT Solutions outlines here.

“Based on feedback from stakeholders, CMS is offering issuers a new option for data reporting under the risk adjustment and reinsurance program,” CMS spokesperson Aaron Albright told CNBC. “Issuers may select the option that best works for them for reporting data that is expected to begin later this year.”

The AWS cloud infrastructure is designed and managed in accordance with several regulations, including the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

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