Empowering Data-Driven Decision-Making through a Secure and Efficient Knowledge Sharing Platform

Client The Center for Medicaid and CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) Services (CMCS)

Introduction

The Center for Medicaid and CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) Services (CMCS) is organized into eight groups responsible for policy and operations at Medicaid, CHIP, and the Basic Health Program (BHP). CMCS collectively serves nearly one-quarter of the US population, including children, families, pregnant women, adults without children, seniors, and people living with disabilities; Medicaid finances over 40% of all US births.

Challenge

Over time, Medicaid and CHIP generated vast amounts of complex operational and financial data, which in turn became increasingly challenging to manage. In many cases, key datasets were not easily accessible by CMCS staff, and only specialists who had constructed the original data sets were able to benefit from their analysis, limiting the immeasurable potential of the knowledge base.

To facilitate access and knowledge-sharing, CMCS first launched the Analytic Reporting Environment for Medicaid and CHIP (AREMAC) in 2018. AREMAC was CMCS’ first effort to build a platform to meet the business needs of both current and future stakeholders. In 2021, AREMAC became Medicaid and CHIP DataConnect (MAC-DC) and Bixal began leading the effort to mature the platform into a modern, cloud-based data layer that could meet the business needs of users, while maintaining the highest levels of security for sensitive data and supporting ease of use and cost efficiency. The task was especially complex: As solutions were designed, developed, implemented, assessed, and refined, it was essential to maintain critical functions throughout.

Solution

Bixal built Medicaid and CHIP DataConnect (MAC-DC) on the Databricks platform, a virtual “table” where users can effectively spread out pieces of data as with a puzzle, then organize and analyze it with team members. With the implementation of a new Amazon QuickSight connector for easy data visualization, the secure platform allows data analysts and data scientists, both CMCS staff and contractors, to quickly and collaboratively conduct analysis within CMCS boundaries. This supports big data analytics, allows real-time data queries, reduces manual processes, and reduces duplication by supporting the reuse of analysis across contracts and CMCS.

Bixal also strengthened the existing infrastructure, migrating the platform to Databricks’ E2 architecture, improving resource allocation, scalability, performance, and cost efficiency. The team continually ingested, cleansed, modeled, and organized major data sets, designed and constructed the platform for analytics and dashboarding, and provided onboarding, training, and tool support.

Impact

DataConnect has grown to become the trusted all-in-one self-service analytics platform for Medicaid and CHIP data products and services. DataConnect manages a constantly growing pool of complex data, oversees a sophisticated tech stack, establishes and enforces standards, and leads the ecosystem of data culture. Currently, over 350 federal staff and contractors use DataConnect’s Databricks to access Medicaid and CHIP datasets and conduct analysis, and dashboards have been viewed more than 20,000 times since the launch of the first MAC-DC dashboard in 2022.

CMCS data collection, management, monitoring, sharing, oversight, and analytics have been optimized through MAC-DC to:

House over seven petabytes—or 7,516,192,768 megabytes—of data.
Make readily available 21 key Medicaid and CHIP datasets covering eligibility, enrollment monitoring reports, summary demographic data, diagnostic and procedure codes, and much more.
Maintain a growing wealth of data within CMS boundaries, centralizing the community of knowledge, and facilitating collaboration across 13 CMS centers or offices, seven other federal agencies, and 20 contractors.
Encompass the continuous increase in data and data complexity and facilitate data-driven decision-making.

DataConnect’s platform has been optimized to support various CMCS efforts, including:

Providing pharmacists with ready access to drug code and reference data.
Supporting state coverage programs with dashboards that monitor CHIP enrollment.
Optimizing CMCS processes related to renewal (previously called “unwinding”) analytics.

Conclusion

DataConnect has empowered CMCS stakeholders to make data-informed decisions on national and state-specific programs and policies, improving the lives of Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries, and strengthening their communities. Bixal’s work with CMCS demonstrates how federal agencies can better serve their constituencies with a design that is holistic, human-centered, and guided by an ethos of constant improvement.