On March 1, the Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) submitted a report to the California Legislature on the Healthcare Payments Data (HPD) Program—California’s All-Payer Claims Database (APCD)—focusing on several areas, including the completeness and quality of data included in the database.
The report includes the following findings and next steps for the program:
- California’s APCD was completed on time.
- The HPD System includes all the initially planned data types, sources, and time periods.
- The HPD System reflects approximately 82% of Californians and their healthcare services.
- Efforts to expand the HPD are already underway, including adding data from dental plans and insurers, capitation payments and other non-claims payment data.
- Increasing voluntary data from private self-funded arrangements provides the biggest opportunity to increase the content and generalizability of the HPD.
- Collecting data directly from providers and suppliers on a limited basis could prove useful but would add considerable cost and complexity to the operation of the HPD Program.
- Preliminary analyses of data quality indicate that the data quality in the HPD System is reflective of and consistent with administrative data used in healthcare operations, and there are opportunities for improvement, particularly for demographic data.
- HCAI’s strong partnership with the National Association of Health Data Organizations and influence on national standards has greatly benefited the HPD Program.
- The HPD Program’s public reporting and data release functions have been successful and continue to evolve.
- HCAI has previously made recommendations to state policymakers to fully fund the HPD Program long-term, included in a March 2023 report to the legislature.
HCAI looks forward to working with all stakeholders to continue to make progress in advancing transparency in health care through data and fulfilling the statutory intent and goals of the HPD Program.
Following are additional relevant resources: