​Summary: California policymakers are taking steps to create a health care payment database (HPD) — often referred to as an all-payer claims database — that would assemble comprehensive payment information on health care services provided to most state residents with public or private health insurance. Rising costs and a lack of transparency are key motivators of this effort, but an overarching goal is to make health care data available to a wide range of stakeholders — including insurers, employers, health care providers, consumers, state agencies, and researchers — in order to continuously monitor and evaluate health care use, expenditures, and outcomes. 

A California HPD would cover a larger and more diverse population than databases in other states, and could be a critical resource for addressing some of the state’s most pressing challenges, including homelessness, untreated mental illness, and the well-being of children. Not only could an HPD offer a crucial source of information about current spending patterns, but it would also be an essential tool to monitor the effects of policy changes. This report offers examples of research that could be developed and/or enhanced by an HPD. 

Findings: The goals of this report are, first, to provide examples of how the database could support high-quality research to enable more evidence-based policymaking in health and other policy areas; and, second, to outline priorities and insights from the California research community that should inform development of the database. Authors offer examples of studies that could be conducted with an HPD and explain their relevance for California policymakers. They then outline the ways researchers can support the development and operation of the HPD. 

This report references requests for the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) to be linked to an HPD.

Read the Publication: 

• External Report: Improving Health Care Data in California