Providing Data for a Healthier Nevada
The Nevada APCD helps residents, policymakers, and researchers better understand the volume, cost, and quality of healthcare services delivered in the Silver State. By securely collecting and integrating claims data from both private insurers and public plans like Medicaid and Medicare, the APCD helps improve and enhance the healthcare system in Nevada.
Key Program Activities
Increasing Healthcare Transparency
Statewide data helps users to more accurately compare the costs, quality, and use of healthcare services delivered across Nevada's insurers, regions, and populations.
Supporting Better Health Policies
The APCD helps policymakers and program leaders plan, test, and implement initiatives aimed at improving healthcare delivery and payment systems that benefit Nevadans.
Evaluating Healthcare Programs
The depth and breadth of the available data allows the State to evaluate the short- and long-term impacts of healthcare reforms aimed at controlling costs and improving access.
What is an all-payer claims database (APCD)?
An APCD collects detailed information from health plans about the specific services – from X-rays and heart surgeries to drug refills and annual check-ups – provided to patients with health insurance. Once collected, the data is checked for quality and completeness, combined into a comprehensive database, and organized into data sets, dashboards, and other resources for states to use. By putting all of this data in one place, APCDs help government agencies, approved analysts, and others explore how healthcare use, prices, and outcomes vary across a wide range of factors.
Why is Nevada establishing a mandatory APCD?
Recognizing the benefits of access to comprehensive data on healthcare services, the Nevada Legislature passed Senate Bill 40 in 2021. The bill was signed into law that summer, requiring the implementation of an APCD to collect, manage, and analyze healthcare claims data from insurance plans in Nevada. The database provides greater transparency into healthcare costs and help State health agencies identify strategies for reducing costs and improving the quality of care.
Who is responsible for the database?
The Division of Health Care Financing and Policy (also known as Nevada Medicaid) at the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is responsible for establishing and maintaining the Nevada APCD. Onpoint Health Data was selected as the State's APCD administrator and provides data collection, management, and enhancement services at the State's direction.
How is the data collected, protected, and validated?
Once qualifying healthcare insurers are approved for participation, the APCD administrator facilitates their secure data submissions based on the State's regulations. Submitted data must be de-identified prior to submission, requiring health plans to encrypt specific data fields before sending their files. Once the data is received and this encryption is confirmed, the data is validated for both quality and completeness.
What are common uses of APCD data?
APCD data can be used for many different purposes. Many state agencies regularly use their database to identify opportunities for investing in public health infrastructure and to evaluate the effectiveness of existing initiatives and proposed reforms. Many also provide data sets to authorized researchers to explore important questions about healthcare delivery, disease trends, drug costs, insurance markets, and more. States also often use their data to create price transparency tools for the public, helping consumers easily compare the cost of a medical service across different providers, insurance plans, and geographies, for example.