State Experiences Linking Medicaid Data With Birth Certificates and Other Data Sources

Background

Many states link Medicaid claims with birth certificates or other data, often to inform programs and policies aimed at improving maternal and child health (MCH).

Objectives

To develop an up-to-date understanding of the extent of the use of linked Medicaid claims for MCH research by state.

Research Design

We completed a structured literature review, developed an inventory of linkage efforts, and facilitated semistructured discussions with representatives from 9 states with established Medicaid claims data linkages to understand the technical details of linkages, experiences creating and maintaining linkages, and barriers or facilitators to establishing linkages.

Results

We identified 45 peer-reviewed journal articles representing 22 states that used linked Medicaid data to study MCH and 33 states and territories that publicly report on Medicaid data linkages for a total of 39 states with any in-scope linkage. Discussions revealed that linkages often arose from the desire to answer a specific question or evaluate a program but then expanded to other use cases and that most states enable external researchers to access data for analysis. Respondents provided a few examples of where linked birth certificate data were used for health outcomes research.

Conclusion

Additional resources including technical assistance for identifying best practices along with interagency collaboration could overcome barriers and facilitate a coordinated and consolidated approach across states.