Racial and ethnic disparities in health care and health outcomes have been well documented. Such disparities are particularly relevant for Medicaid given that more than half of the program’s 73 million beneficiaries identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian American, or another non-white race or ethnicity. Addressing disparities and promoting equity in coverage, access, experience, and outcomes among historically marginalized and underserved populations will depend in part on having complete and systemically collected data by race and ethnicity.
This issue brief begins by describing federal data standards for capturing information on race and ethnicity and federal requirements for monitoring disparities in Medicaid. It then describes the availability of such information in Medicaid administrative data, specifically the Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System, and in federal household surveys that capture health care use and experiences of Medicaid beneficiaries, among others.
MACPAC found significant limitations in using both administrative data and federal survey data for analyses related to race ethnicity. Some states have high rates of missing data, and there are also concerns about validity when compared to external benchmarks.