Carolina Cost and Quality Initiative (CCQI)
The Carolina Cost and Quality Initiative is a collaborative partnership between UNC’s School of Public Health and the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research to build, maintain and oversee the use of these data for research. Data from public and private payers populate the patient specific database. Periodic updates from the payers keep the research database current and relevant.
Mission. The mission of the Carolina Cost and Quality Initiative is to promote population based research on the incidence and prevalence of disease in insured populations, patterns of utilization, treatment and cost of care in North Carolina with an objective to improve the delivery and quality of care to its residents.
Sources of data. The CCQI requests claims and transaction data from the primary payers of health care services in NC. Over time, we anticipate that both public and private payers will participate. This familiarity with and use of multiple data sources will allow a more comprehensive portrait of the health of NC citizens, as well as patterns and costs of care.
SEHP - State Employees Health Plan Data
Data currently available: January 1, 2001 - December 31, 2010
DMA - (Medicaid) Division of Medicaid Assistance Claims Data
Data currently available: January 1, 2002 - December 31, 2010
Who can use the data? Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are encouraged to use the CCQI research database. Project proposals must be submitted to a review committee for prior approval in order to assure the feasibility of the proposed research using these specialized datasets. Guidelines for project submission are available in the "Data Requests" section in the left hand menu.
Cost of data. There is a small charge associated with the use of the CCQI data. This covers programming costs to prepare research files tailored to each individual researcher's project, and to assist the researcher in learning how to use the data. The cost to the researcher is $3,000 for each year of data from both the SEHP and DMA databases. For example if the researcher is requesting DMA data from 2006-2007 as well as SEHP data from 2006-2007, then the total charge would be $12,000. Funding to pay for use of the data must be arranged and documented before the data request is submitted.
Contents of the research file. For each individual in the target populations the CCQI database includes information on every health care service reimbursed by the relevant payers. The services generally include doctor visits, hospital care, outpatient treatments, emergency room use and prescription medications. Patient descriptors on each record include age and gender. Records also include information about diagnoses, procedures, provider and charges. Patient identifiers are encrypted, and no identification of individual patients will be possible.
Confidentiality and privacy issues. All patient identifiers have been encrypted by the data owners prior to submission to the CCQI. This allows the researcher to link line items for the same individual, but no individual can be identified. Each researcher requesting use of the data will sign a data use agreement with CCQI agreeing to HIPAA guidelines.
Sandra Greene, DrPh |
Stephanie Pierson, MSHI |
Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research |
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