emPOWERing State/Territorial Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) Data Pilot
Why the emPOWERing State/Territorial Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Data Pilot is Needed
Millions of at-risk individuals rely on electricity-dependent durable medical and assistive equipment and devices (DME) and certain essential health care services to live independently in their homes. Local incidents, such as prolonged power outages, to large-scale emergencies and disasters can rapidly thrust these individuals into life-threatening situations within hours or days. In the event of an incident, emergency, or disaster, at-risk populations often seek immediate care from first responders, hospitals, and shelters. Others may shelter in place, as they are unable to evacuate safely without assistance, putting their lives at risk. In 2013, the HHS emPOWER Program, leveraging Medicare claims data, was launched to help communities nationwide protect the health of more than 4.3 million predominantly older adult beneficiaries who live independently and rely on electricity-dependent DME and certain cardiac implantable devices, and or who receive essential healthcare services (i.e., facility-based dialysis, home oxygen tank services, home health care services, and at-home hospice services).
In 2018, ASPR, in partnership with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), launched the emPOWERing State/Territory Medicaid and CHIP Data Pilot in response to requests from states and territories who wanted to develop a similar understanding of pediatric and other adult at-risk populations in their communities. The pilot provides knowledge, tools, and technical assistance to help states and territories create emPOWER datasets using their own state or territory-operated Medicaid and CHIP data. These datasets provide states and territories with a more holistic understanding of the access and functional needs in their communities, ultimately enabling these communities to better prepare for, respond to, recover from, and mitigate incidents, emergencies, and disasters.
Who can participate in an emPOWERing State/Territorial Medicaid and CHIP Data Pilot
The primary state and territory partnership required to participate in the voluntary pilot includes the public health authority preparedness director (and or delegate) and the Medicaid agency IT/enterprise coordinator (and or delegate).
What the emPOWERing State/Territorial Medicaid and CHIP Data Pilot Offers
The pilot provides states and territories with the knowledge and technical assistance to develop complementary emPOWER de-identified and restricted individual-level (as appropriate) datasets using their state and territorial operated Medicaid and CHIP program data. This data provides valuable information about community-based pediatric and other adult at-risk populations that can help public health authorities and authorized partners take action to protect health and conduct life-saving outreach assistance in the event of an incident, emergency or disaster.
How the emPOWERing Medicaid and CHIP Data Pilot is Making an Impact
The HHS emPOWER Program’s Medicare data has helped public health authorities and their partners across all fifty states, five territories, and four major metropolitan areas to optimally operationalize emPOWER tools to strengthen emergency preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation activities across a diverse range of emergency scenarios. These include, but are not limited to, wildfires, hurricanes, severe flooding, power outages, winter storms, pandemics, and critical infrastructure failures.
Participation in the pilot, is empowering states and territories to also understand and integrate the needs of their at-risk pediatric and adult at-risk populations across their emergency preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation activities in advance of an incident, emergency, or disaster. For example, pilot participants have used the de-identified at-risk pediatric data to help them anticipate and plan for potential pediatric medical supplies, durable medical and assistive equipment DME (e.g., wheelchairs), and other resources, such as those to meet nutritional requirements, in shelters.
To learn more about the Pilot, select the emPOWERing State and Territory Medicaid and CHIP Pilot Fact Sheet in the Resources box on this page.
