Acquiring State Administrative Data: Lessons from Home Visiting Program Evaluation

February 16, 2015
Smaller photo of two women sharing home visiting data.

Larger photo of two women sharing home visiting data.By Nancy Geyelin Margie, Ph.D., Social Science Research Analyst, Division of Family Strengthening, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation

Policymakers are increasingly encouraging greater use of administrative data to produce lower cost, timely and rigorous evaluations of health and social programs. But is using administrative data actually cheaper, faster and better? The newest report from the MIHOPE-Strong Start project sheds light on the process and challenges of gaining access to state administrative data.

So far, the team has reached legal agreements to acquire administrative records with 19 different state agencies (out of 42) in 20 states. Lessons learned include:

  • Gaining access to administrative records across numerous states and across different agencies within a state is a multi-faceted process, including series of conversations with state agency contacts and multiple layers of review and approval with each agency.
  • Entering into legal agreements often requires legal consultation and negotiations around data usage and destruction as well as around publications review and approval procedures.

The evaluation encountered the following challenges:

  • Accessing records takes time. Among the first 19 agreements, it took between four and 24 months to complete all the necessary steps to execute them, with the average process taking 11 months.
  • Lags in data availability can be lengthy. For vital records, the wait time can be two years from the beginning of the calendar year in which the birth occurred.
  • Not all state agencies are willing to provide Medicaid and birth certificate data.
  • National databases could not be used in MIHOPE-Strong Start, due to the length of time it takes for the data to be released and to limitations in linking the available national data to other data sources the study needs to link to.

Once acquired, there may still be challenges with data due to variable quality and content. For example, Medicaid data based on records from managed care organizations, which do not reimburse per service and often use capitated payment plans, may not contain the level of detail needed to accurately determine health care use or cost.

The evaluation has also shed light on strategies that can facilitate data acquisition. The acquisition process may be easier when a state agency sponsors the research study, or when national databases that include data across multiple state agencies can be used.

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