BETHESDA, MD – An Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) project on which Econometrica played a key role won an award for developing “an efficient data abstraction tool and the support of well-trained, highly skilled abstractors.”
The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS-HC) Health Policy Booklet Abstraction project, on which Econometrica served as a subcontractor to SoftDev, won recognition in the 7th Annual FedHealthIT Innovation Awards. The awards recognize and honor innovation and results in the Federal health technology and consulting community that benefits the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Military Health System, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The MEPS-HC project involved the creation of an abstraction tool for use in extracting cost-sharing data elements from Summaries of Benefits and Coverage and other health insurance policy documents for private, Medicare, Medigap, and Medicare Advantage plans. Econometrica was responsible for training, implementing, and ensuring the quality of the data abstraction process using the abstraction tool developed by the team. The abstracted data will be compiled into a public-use database with individual-level cost-sharing data that links to the MEPS-HC data for use in research and consumption by a variety of stakeholders as well as the public.
“This represents the development of an efficient data abstraction tool and the support of well-trained, highly skilled abstractors to produce a robust, accurate and actionable data source for AHRQ’s use,” according to FedHealthIT.
The tool “modernized AHRQ’s available toolset by harnessing cognitive services in a way not previously used.” FedHealthIT also noted that “the solution strikes a smart balance between automation and human intelligence to best interpret artifacts, empowering AHRQ to leap forward after a twenty year wait for the critical information locked within the [health policy booklet] documents.”
AHRQ and the project and MEPS team will be recognized at a virtual ceremony June 22 and 23, 2021. Award winners were nominated and selected by a panel that included current and former Federal health leaders across Government and industry. More about the awards and other winners can be found at https://www.fedhealthit.com/2021/05/2021-fedhealthit-innovation-award-winners-announced/.
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The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS-HC) Health Policy Booklet Abstraction project, on which Econometrica served as a subcontractor to SoftDev, won recognition in the 7th Annual FedHealthIT Innovation Awards.