CMS Takes Historic Steps to Increase Public Access to Medicaid and CHIP Data

CMS NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 7, 2019 Contact: CMS Media Relations (202) 690-6145 | CMS Media Inquiries CMS Takes Historic Steps to Increase Public Access to Medicaid and CHIP Data  Release of Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) data marks CMS’s continued commitment to promoting transparency and accountability in the Medicaid program through seamless data sharing Today the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released for the first time its research-ready Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) data, a robust and evolving collection of Medicaid and CHIP data files. Today’s historic data release is a milestone in CMS’s continued commitment to promoting transparency and accountability in the Medicaid program. It is also part of our MyHealthEData initiative to unleash data into the public domain to promote data-driven solutions, help ensure sound program performance, support improvement, and identify and prevent fraud, waste and abuse in the Medicaid and CHIP programs. “The research community and stakeholders will have a powerful tool to provide creative solutions on Medicaid and CHIP healthcare delivery, outcomes, and financing,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “By unleashing data, the Trump Administration is establishing an environment of shared learning and opportunity for federal and state partners to continue to realize values from best practices, leading to positive health outcomes for our most vulnerable populations.” Today’s release reverses years of a lack of access to Medicaid and CHIP data. These data provide key information, including information on utilization and spending under Medicaid managed care, and are needed to enable research and analysis to improve quality of care, assess beneficiary care costs, and enrollment and improve program integrity. Ongoing availability of T-MSIS data is essential to allow monitoring and oversight of Medicaid and CHIP programs, to enable evaluation of demonstrations under section 1115 of the Social Security Act, and to calculate quality measures and other metrics. Over the last five years, CMS and states have worked diligently to improve the quality and integrity of the data states submitted to T-MSIS.  As a result, we now have more timely beneficiary-level data on the Medicaid and CHIP program than we’ve ever had before. CMS is continuing to work with states to improve reporting to ensure that future data releases will be even better. External researchers can obtain access to T-MSIS data by submitting a request to the CMS Research Data Assistance Center (ResDAC) and signing a CMS data use agreement containing strict beneficiary privacy and data security requirements.  To learn more visit the ResDAC website: https://www.resdac.org/. ###  Get CMS news at cms.gov/newsroom, sign up for CMS news via email and follow CMS on Twitter CMS Administrator @SeemaCMS, @CMSgov, and @CMSgovPress.