The National Association of Health Data Organizations (NAHDO) is developing a series of six fact sheets and a best practices guide about all-payer claims databases (APCDs) and their potential influence on health care quality, efficiency, and cost. With support from The Commonwealth Fund, NAHDO has produced four fact sheets thus far, with topics ranging from the use of APCDs in Medicaid to the standardization of APCDs by state.
APCDs have the potential to provide valuable information on the services rendered for different populations and different payer types. While some leading states have created or are creating data systems to collect claims data from all commercial and public payers, most have not. Having an APCD is requisite to benchmarking and understanding the costs and quality of care within states and, thus, to achieving high performance. The All-Payer Claims Database Council and NAHDO have been leading efforts to promote APCDs within states, but both organizations recognize the need for further efforts to meet states’ needs for information and guidance.
The four fact sheets published to date include: All-Payer Claims Databases, All-Payer Claims Databases in Public Health and Medicaid, Standardization of Data Collection in All-Payer Claims Databases, and Key State Health Care Databases for Improving Health Care Delivery. NAHDO has also published an issue brief, All-Payer Claims Databases: State Initiatives to Improve Health Care Transparency, that can be found on the Fund’s Web site.