HHS to build universal claims database for health research
By Mary Mosquera
Thursday, December 17, 2009
The Health & Human Services Department (HHS) plans to build a universal database of claims records from all healthcare payor organizations in an effort to strengthen its analysis of healthcare trends and treatment outcomes.
In a notice outlining the project, HHS said the database – which could be expanded to include other types of health records – would broaden the data field against which to conduct comparative effectiveness research.
The “all-payor, all-claims database would allow for greater power in analysis,” HHS said in the Dec. 15 notice. “Claims data, especially if established in a manner where it can be linked to other data over time, can be powerful a tool for comparative effectiveness research and ultimately improve care for all Americans,” the notice said.
A number of databases exist with long-term patient information that can support its research, but each has limitations, HHS said.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Integrated Data Repository (IDR), Chronic Conditions Warehouse (CCW), and Medicaid claims files (MAX) databases include data only on the Medicare and Medicaid populations, according to the notice.
In addition, state-based all-payor, all-claims databases are limited geographically in scope and by variations in design across different states. And private databases may include information on a more demographically diverse population but are still fragmented and often inaccessible to researchers due to cost.
A new database, “if developed well …. would be a representative sample of the population and could be built upon over time,” according to the notice.
HHS will first award a contract with a vendor to conduct a design study of an all-payor, all-claims database.
An all-payor, all-claims database would allow for greater power in analysis, ensuring that the data infrastructure the Secretary supports will be able to produce robust analysis. If developed well, this database would be a representative sample of the population and could be built upon over time.
