HCCI Releases a New, Free Data Tool to Track Use of Health Care Services Vital to Improving U.S. Health Care System

PR Newswire

Access to data on key health care metrics can help clinical providers, policy makers, public health professionals and journalists better understand where health care resources and reforms are needed

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) has released a new data dashboard — Health Care Vitals — compiling national, state and local data sources highlighting the use of dozens of health care services from insured people in the United States. The Health Care Vitals Data Dashboard shows the use of key health services combining data from public and private health insurers for 190 million people with Medicare, Medicaid and those with employer-sponsored insurance, constituting over 60% of the U.S. population.

This comprehensive, interactive multi-payer data resource highlights service use since 2018 and shows patterns of health care service use over time. HCCI developed this resource to track services that are critically important to public health and a well-functioning health care system. The inaugural release of data includes information on the use of:

Childbirth
Telehealth
Cancer screenings
Hospitalizations due to respiratory illness
Antibiotic and antiviral prescriptions

"COVID-19 forced the health care industry — providers, policymakers and public health professionals — to really examine when, where and how people use those services," said Katie Martin, president and CEO of HCCI. "This information brings a new cross-sectional perspective on service use. It helps answer critical population-level questions about what affects health care and informs how and where improvements are needed in our health care system, especially for socially vulnerable populations across the country."

For example, when categorizing data by health care services provided for mammography, HCCI's Health Care Vitals Data Dashboard can demonstrate how public health messaging around breast cancer awareness is associated with increases in cancer screenings in the month of October. It also shows how the rate of c-section deliveries varies widely by state but doesn't change from year to year, and how use of penicillin dropped dramatically in March 2020, coinciding with the beginning of the pandemic.

The findings in Health Care Vitals are powered by HCCI data and can be accessed at vitals.healthcostinstitute.org.

Through this online tool, users can view monthly use rates of select health care services calculated per 100,000 health insurance enrollees. By clicking one of the three highlighted health care Service Stories, users will populate the dashboard with the relevant information, or select a Service and Payer to get started. Currently the Service Stories include data related to respiratory hospitalizations, antibiotic use and telehealth use. The dashboard sections and panels include national monthly service use rates, average monthly rate, peak rate, state-level use by selected year, service use rates broken out by selectable demographic characteristics, including Minority Health Social Vulnerability Index (MH-SVI), and service use rates compared to similar services in the same service category.

About Health Care Cost Institute

The Health Care Cost Institute's mission is to get to the heart of the key issues impacting the U.S. health care system — by using the best data to get the best answers. HCCI stands for truth and consensus around the most important trends in health care, particularly those economic issues that are critical to a sustainable, high-performing health system. To learn more about HCCI, visit https://healthcostinstitute.org/.

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