New Refined Data Standards for Race, Ethnicity, Sex, Primary Language, and Disability Status
The Department of Health and Human Services on Oct. 31, 2011, published final standards for data collection on race, ethnicity, sex, primary language and disability status, as required by Section 4302 of the Affordable Care Act.
Identifying disparities and effectively targeting and monitoring efforts to reduce them has been limited by a lack of specificity, uniformity and quality in data collection and reporting procedures. Consistent methods for collecting and reporting health data will help us better characterize and compare the nature of health problems in underserved populations. They will apply to self-reported information only. The law also requires any data standards published by HHS comply with standards created by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
The standards, effective upon publication, apply to population health surveys sponsored by HHS, where respondents either self-report information or a knowledgeable person responds for all members of a household. HHS will begin implementation of these new data standards in all new surveys and at the time of major revisions to current surveys.
Read more and see the new six-question data set for disability at http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlID=208.
