Health equity data strategy and applications in Medicaid managed care

While many states have made improving health equity and addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) a top priority, these efforts are likely to have the greatest impact when supported by robust data resources and analysis. This paper is intended to provide state Medicaid agencies a summary of available data sources that can assist in evaluating health disparities and measuring progress toward health equity goals, as well as potential actions that can be taken through a state’s Medicaid managed care program to promote more robust and actionable health equity data. Examples of health equity data applications for managed care programs are also discussed, including a case study using Medicaid quality metrics.