With the goal of increasing the accuracy and timeliness of the underlying data, NORC and its partner HSRI (Human Services Research Institute) teamed with the Center for Improving Value in Healthcare (CIVHC) to rebuild the infrastructure of the Colorado all-payer claims database (CO APCD). As a result, the modernized data management, warehousing, and analytics capabilities enabled CIVHC to accelerate data-driven insights and custom data requests for the betterment of the population’s health and healthcare. 

As the data warehouse vendor for the CO APCD, NORC and our partner HSRI are empowering Colorado’s healthcare transformation using valuable tools, like the APCD, to maximize data utility and advance data-driven analysis of the state’s healthcare utilization, quality, cost, and outcomes. The NORC-HSRI team is responsible for managing and analyzing millions of health care claims records from 46 commercial health insurance companies, Medicare, Medicare Advantage. With patient privacy protection front of mind, the analysis is informing policy development and evaluation, decision making, and evidence-based research. 

NORC supports HSRI in performing core project management, reporting and quality assurance functions, and web platform development. The Colorado APCD is hosted in the NORC Data Enclave®, the industry-defining high-performance computational, storage, and analytical environment for secure research of sensitive and confidential data. NORC ensures regulatory compliance with FISMA, HIPAA, and QECP standards and is responsible for security of the data and protecting patient privacy.  

NORC provides managed and professional services for the core engineering and maintenance of the CO APCD warehouse infrastructure, tiered access to the data, user support and technical assistance, and disclosure controls. We have provided data analytic support, e.g., helping CIVHC build new data displays for the publicly facing website as well as standard reports available to a wide array of custom data requestors. Finally, NORC is the CMS DUA Custodian over the Medicare FFS (Fee for Service) data within the CO APCD. 

Together, the CIVHC, HSRI, and NORC team have achieved noteworthy outcomes in modernizing the Colorado APCD.