Addition of Medicare Data to Virginia All-Payer Claims Database Provides Greater Analytical Insight on Enhancing Health Care Delivery System

December 12, 2017

VHHA-Supported APCD Database Now Includes Information from Federal Health Insurance Plans, Commercial Health Insurers, Health Care Subscription Plans to Aid Data-Driven Research to Improve Health Care Analyses

RICHMOND, VA – Reliable health care data supports analyses that can inform decision-making focused on improving the health care delivery system for the people and patients it serves. That’s why the addition of Medicare data to a Virginia database of health care records is such an important development. Medicare data recently was added to Virginia’s All-Payer Claims Database (APCD), a subscription-based service administered by the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) through the non-profit Virginia Health Information (VHI) organization. It was established through legislation enacted during the 2012 Virginia General Assembly session. Participation in APCD is voluntary. Its purpose is “to facilitate data-driven, evidence-based improvements in access, quality, and cost of health care and to improve the public health through understanding of health care expenditure patterns and operation and performance of the health care system.”

“Virginia’s hospital community has been supportive of the establishment of the APCD and its growth to include more data, from which important insights about enhancing health care can be derived,” said Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA) President and CEO Sean T. Connaughton. “The addition of Medicare fee-for-service data is a welcome development in the APCD’s ongoing evolution as a data asset that supports research to further refine health care delivery.”

The planned addition of Medicare data to the APCD was announced in July. The data was recently updated through the first quarter of 2017 to include Medicare data. The database now includes information from federal health insurance plans such as Medicare, some commercial health insurers, health care subscription plans, health maintenance organizations, some third-party administration submissions, pharmacy benefits managers, and the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS). Patient data in the APCD is de-identified to protect confidentiality in accordance with federal and state law.

VHHA is among the organizations that provided initial and ongoing financial support toward APCD costs. The Association’s Analytics Team now leverages APCD data to perform a variety of data-driven analyses in support of Virginia’s community hospitals and health systems, and to better educate the public through its online publication of accessible data dashboard tools and composition of Research Corner digest columns that examine health care trends. The APCD, for example, has data that can be mined to perform in-depth market share analyses by individual physician or service type, physician prescribing behavior, prescription use trends among patients as they move from emergency, inpatient, and outpatient settings, and much more. Subscription-based APCD licenses are available through VHI. Officials at Virginia hospitals and health systems subscribed to the APCD can contact VHHA staff (bbrown@vhha.com) to request an analysis, or a demonstration of VHHA’s analytical capabilities from leveraging the APCD (dvaamonde@vhha.com).

About VHHA: The Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association is an alliance of 110 hospitals and 29 health delivery systems that develops and advocates for sound health care policy in the Commonwealth. Its mission is to achieve excellence in both health care and health. Its vision is through the power of collaboration to be recognized as a driving force behind making Virginia the healthiest state in the nation. Connect with VHHA through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and ISupportVirginiaHospitals.com.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Julian Walker
Vice President of Communications
(804) 297-3193 office
(804) 304-7402 mobile
jtwalker@vhha.com