Data Policy

This brief describes progress in the Child Welfare and Health Infrastructure for Linking and Data Analysis of Resources, Effectiveness, and Needs (CHILDREN) Initiative, which is in its fourth year. At this time, four jurisdictions participate in the CHILDREN Initiative: District of Columbia, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.

KEY POINTSAnnual growth in the number of kidney transplants began to accelerate in 2019.

This brief describes how enhancing linked data infrastructure across health and human services programs can improve efficiency, increase transparency through strengthening outcomes research, and empower patients and families to make more informed choices.

This report and accompanying discussion by ASPE and NORC highlights the claims data limitations identified during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Health (PHE) and provides considerations to address these limitations. The report identifies that limitations related to claims data were existing issues, exacerbated by, but not unique to, the COVID-19 PHE.

This report is the third in a series of reports commissioned by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) from the RAND Corporation addressing state all payer claims databases (APCDs). APCDs include medical, pharmacy, and dental claims, as well as enrollment and provider files collected from private and public payers by states, usually as part of a State mandate.

This report provides information to state, tribal, and local child welfare and behavioral health agencies that are interested in linking their Medicaid and child welfare data.

Medicaid pays for nearly half of all births in the United States, including most births by Black and Hispanic pregnant population.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has several different policy groups such as the HHS Data Council, Data Governance Board, Evidence and Evaluation Policy Council, and the HHS AI Council that frequently use many terms related to data, but likely with inconsistent understanding of their definitions and how these terms should be used.

This posting includes a report prepared by the RAND Corporation, “State All Payer Claims Databases Understanding the Current Landscape and Challenges to Use,” which builds on a 2021 report “The History, Promise and Challenges of State All Payer Claims Databases.” The new report provides additional detail on the objectives of and use cases for APCDs, the current APCD landscape, and implementatio