Faculty members affiliated with the Center for Chronic Disease Research and Policy are experts in a full range of related health care policies that affect the care of individuals with low incomes, including the Affordable Care Act, the Federally-Quality Health Center program, the 340 prescription drug program, and Medicaid.
In 2016, these faculty members formed the Medicaid Working Group which oversees the annual purchase of the entire country’s Medicaid claims. The Medicaid Working Group at the University of Chicago is among the first to use a national panel of Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX) files to assess program-wide performance and disease prevalence (at a single point in time, and over several years). The availability of Medicaid claims data also introduces the possibility of in-depth local studies of the experience of academic medical centers, like the University of Chicago Medicine, in caring for large numbers of Medicaid recipients. Documentation of the real-world challenges of working with Medicaid programs is an important perspective that needs to be heard by policymakers of all sides of the political spectrum.
The Center for Chronic Disease Research and Policy collaborates with the Center for Health Administration Studies (CHAS) to support the Medicaid Working Group. To learn more about CHAS and the Medicaid Working Group click HERE. Are you a UChicago researcher interested in accessing and using insurance claims data to improve US health policy? Learn more about the University of Chicago Health Policy Data Lab HERE.