FAIR Health Data Repository Surpasses 43 Billion Claim Records

November 16, 2023

FAIR Health’s collection of private health insurance claims recently surpassed 43 billion claim records, a new milestone for what was already the nation’s largest such repository. Spanning the period from 2002 to the present, the repository is growing at a rate of more than two billion claim records a year. Separately, our repository of Medicare fee-for-service data, which we receive as a national, certified Qualified Entity from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, now stands at more than 45 billion claim records from 2013 to the present.

FAIR Health’s rich, comprehensive collection continues to grow and deepen as new contributors, confident in our stewardship of the data and our neutrality, submit data in a wide range of fields. The 70-plus payors and administrators who submit the private claims data to our repository insure or process claims for both fully insured and self-insured plans, covering individuals located in all 50 states; Washington, DC; Puerto Rico; and the US Virgin Islands. Their contributions allow us to achieve greater insights into the healthcare system and provide a variety of data and analytics to consumers, providers, payors, policy makers, researchers and others, and afford the contributors many benefits. Not least among those benefits is the representation of their experience in a database increasingly used by government agencies as an official data source for numerous health policy and consumer protection initiatives, in addition to many other uses within the industry.

Operational Support
FAIR Health’s data collection operationally supports stakeholders across the healthcare spectrum. Our expanding suite of charge and allowed benchmark modules and other industry-standard claims data resources meet varied stakeholder needs. Our data power a broad range of custom analytics, designed to meet the specifications of particular clients. Because our database of private healthcare claims includes a subset of longitudinal data, custom analytics can include the tracking of individual de-identified patients over time. FAIR Health data support provider reimbursement, provider network design, benefit design and premium rate design. The data illuminate patient migratory patterns and changing venues of care.

Fee Schedules
FAIR Health’s data, coupled with our reputation for neutrality, allow us to support state healthcare fee schedules around the country. These include fee schedules in such varied areas as workers’ compensation, auto liability or personal injury protection (PIP), crime victims’ funds, women’s wellness and cancer screenings, and a medical indemnity fund for birth-related neurological injuries.

Consumer Resources
The FAIR Health data repository powers the medical, dental and shoppable services cost lookup tools on our free, award-winning consumer website. Available in English (fairhealthconsumer.org) and Spanish (fairhealthconsumidor.org), the website allows consumers to look up typical costs for healthcare procedures in their own geographic areas and adjacent areas. The costs are put in context with a rich, original educational curriculum about health insurance. The website also contains shared decision-making tools that offer decision aids with clinical and cost information.

Research
FAIR Health data help academics and policy makers by fueling research that leads to new studies in peer-reviewed journals and government publications. For a summary of the FAIR Health studies and external studies that drew on FAIR Health data in 2023, watch for the annual FAIR Health Research Recap newsletter, coming in December.

For more information on FAIR Health’s data repository and its uses, contact us by email at info@fairhealth.org or call us at 855-301-FAIR (3247), Monday through Friday, 9 am to 6 pm ET.