Current Data Requests

The Maine Health Data Organization has, in accordance with Rule Chapter 120: Release of Data to the Public, instituted a process for the purpose of notifying users and providers of health care data when the MHDO receives a request for health data and accepts that request. In addition to sending electronic notification to interested parties and to providers that are responsible for the submission of the data, we provide the summary page of the ten most recent data requests below. If you are interested in seeing requests prior to the last on this page, you will find them here: https://mhdo.maine.gov/dataRequests_Archived.htm

For all data requests, the data providers or other interested parties may submit comments related to the data request to the Executive Director. To be considered, comments must be received by the Executive Director in writing or by electronic notification no later than thirty business days after the initial posting of the data request on the MHDO web site. If the Executive Director determines that (a.) the comments received are of significant enough importance to delay the release of data and/or (b.) additional information is required from the requesting party to address the comments; then the data shall not be released until the additional information has been received from the requesting party and an additional review is conducted by the Executive Director or the MHDO Data Release Subcommittee, as applicable, to ensure that the requesting party conforms to all applicable requirements of this chapter.

The Executive Director will bring all comments received from the data providers and or other interested parties for the release of Level III Data to the MHDO Data Release Subcommittee for consideration.

Individuals who want to opt out of a specific Level III data request may do so by completing this MHDO Choice Disclosure Form no later than 30 business days after the initial posting of the data request. If you opt out of Level III data requests, you will remain opted out unless you choose to opt back in via completion of the MHDO Choice Disclosure Form.

NOTE: If you would like to be notified when new data requests are posted, please email your request.

Request # Requesting Party and Title Affiliation Date Posted Comment Close Date Specific Data Request Purpose of Request
Benefits to the Citizens of Maine
Public Reporting Plans		 Released
Denied
Withdrawn
2024041901 Mellett, Jean Northern Light Health 6/7/2024 7/23/24 MHDO Level II CY 2024 Inpatient and Outpatient Hospital Encounter Data, including Patient City/Zip, Practitioner Identifiable, Race & Ethnicity, and Integrated Cancer-Incidence Registry Data. This data request seeks to add an additional year of MHDO data to previously approved data request number 2023012601. Northern Light Health (NLH) will continue to use the MHDO’s inpatient and outpatient hospital data to support its member organizations and their planning efforts to advance initiatives that are important to the hospital system, the people of Maine, and the State’s healthcare system. To improve the health of the people and communities served, NLH will continue to analyze patient origin and demographics, locations of healthcare services and providers, healthcare services utilization rates and volumes and healthcare services provided, including diagnoses and procedures. The benefits to the citizens of Maine include optimized resource allocations, better planning by understanding care delivery factors like distances traveled by patients, and refined program planning for specific age groups. Race and ethnicity data addresses gaps around health care equity. The MHDO’s integrated Cancer-Incidence Registry data informs developments in Oncology services that are especially important given reported decreases in cancer screening and diagnostic procedures due to the COVID pandemic. Provider identification data supports decision-making for future placement of services and/or collaborative efforts.  
2024030803 Mellet, Jean, VP - Planning and Strategy Northern Light Health 5/22/2024 7/8/2024 Custom Level II MHDO Custom Extract CY 2019- CY 2024 (Excluding CY 2020), Medical Claims data, including Age and Anonymous Payer Name/ID. Northern Light Health (NLH) will use a custom data extract from the Maine Health Data Organization to better understand infusion services within the State. This data extract will include information on the types of drugs being utilized, sites of care, costs, and service providers. This information will benefit the citizens of Maine by helping Northern Light Health guide planning efforts throughout Maine to bridge service gaps and improve care delivery to the communities NLH serves.  
2024043003 Ahrens, Katherine - Associate Research Professor University of Southern Maine 5/22/2024 7/8/2024 Level II CY 2023 Hospital Inpatient Encounter data, including City/Zip, DOB and FIPS codes and Race & Ethnicity from CY 2009-2023 This data request is an update to the previously approved MHDO data request #2023050301, to include an additional year of data and Race & Ethnicity data elements. The specific research questions are: What are the trends in substance use-related delivery and newborn hospitalizations in the state of Maine. Do these trends vary by level of rurality of patient's residence or other patient characteristics, and what are the co-morbidities associated with substance use-related delivery and newborn hospitalizations in Maine. The team at USM will estimate the trends and characteristics that make up substance use-related delivery and newborn hospitalizations in the state of Maine. Benefit to Citizens of Maine: This information can lead to the development of interventions to prevent these types of hospitalizations, thereby benefitting the people of Maine.  
2024042901 Harrington, Karynlee, Director Maine Quality Forum 4/29/2024 6/11/2024 Level II Q1 2016 - Q4 2023 Medical Claims, Medical Eligibility, Pharmacy Claims, Pharmacy Eligibility released at the City/Zip and Date of Birth level including Practitioner Identifiers, Payer Group ID, Payer Name/ID and Anonymous Payer Name/ID; and non-claims-based payments, including supplemental data sets defined in Public Law 2022, Chapter 603, and 90-590 CMR Chapter 247, Uniform Reporting System for Non-Claims Based Payments and Other Supplemental Health Care Data Sets. Both Public Law 244, An Act to Establish Transparency in Primary Care Spending; and Public Law 2022, An Act Regarding Reporting on Behavioral Health Care Services… requires the Maine Quality Forum (MQF) to produce annual spending reports for primary care and behavioral health care services in Maine using data from the Maine Health Data Organization. This request updates the data time-period by adding the most recent CY data set, 2023. The report will include the percentage paid (claims and non-claims payments) as a percentage of the respective total medical expenditures for primary care and behavioral health care by commercial insurers, the MaineCare program, Medicare, and the State Employee Plan and the Maine Education Association Benefits Trust; as well as the average percentage of total medical expenditures paid for primary care and behavioral health care across all payors. The reports will be submitted in January 2025 to the Commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services and the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over health coverage and health insurance matters. Copies of most recent reports can be found here:https://mhdo.maine.gov/mqf.html. Purpose of Request/Benefits to the Citizens of Maine/Public Reporting Plans: Legislative mandate  
2024031801 Grass, Dana Maine Health,
Maine Bleeding
Disorder Ctr		 4/11/2024 5/24/2024 AdHoc The Maine Bleeding Disorders Center (MBDC) is a hemophilia treatment center within the Maine Health system. We serve patients throughout the state of Maine and parts of New Hampshire with rare bleeding disorders. The center hopes to soon expand access to individuals with inherited clotting disorders as well. Previously, the MHDO had provided an Ad Hoc report in DR#2023080701 on the distribution of patients with inherited bleeding disorders and some patients that had experienced blood clots. This report allowed us to review our current patient population and identify areas for outreach in the state of Maine. The data in the newis report will help to support the addition of a dedicated benign hematologist in the development of a thrombosis program that will serve as the premier thrombosis treatment program in the state of Maine. This project will utilize data collected by the MHDO in an Ad Hoc report on our individuals from the years 2018 - 2023 based on specific primary diagnoses of hereditary clotting disorders to quantify the number of potential patients to be served by the Maine Bleeding Disorders Center in the future. The goal of this project will be to assist in justifying the need for an additional hematologist for the Maine Bleeding Disorders Center that would increase accessibility of care for a large number of patients and to identify potential existing clinics/hospitals for outreach. Our team plans to expand and service this community in the future and data regarding the location and quantity of these individuals will help us be better prepared to treat them.  
2024020502 Garratt-Reed, Meg, Exec. Dir. Maine Office of Affordable Health Care 2/23/2024 4/4/2024 Ad Hoc reports that analyze spending by Payer, Sex, Age, County, Provider, Facility, CPT/DRG Codes, and Service Category. In 2021, the Maine legislature created the Office of Affordable Health Care when it enacted P.L. 2021 Chapter 459, Section 3. Among other duties, the establishing legislation directs the office to analyze health care cost growth and spending trends, including correlation to quality and consumer experience, and to develop proposals to improve the affordability, quality, and efficiency of health care in Maine. This project will advance the aims of the office by creating an ongoing means of tracking and displaying health care spending on multiple levels, and by providing insight into drivers of high and rising spending in Maine. This work will also serve as a further iteration of the Baseline Report previously produced by MHDO, layering more granular analyses onto the report which respond to the needs of policymakers to understand health spending. The interactive dashboards created with MHDO data will serve as a resource to policymakers and other external stakeholders, and will allow the office to clearly identify and articulate drivers of spending and propose targeted solutions.  
2024011703 Ruby, Ray, Executive Director Maine Cancer Foundation 2/6/2024 3/19/2024 CY 2015 – CY 2023 MHDO Level II medical claims & eligibility, pharmacy claims & eligibility, inpatient & outpatient hospital encounters, cancer-incidence registry, and vital death statistics data, including Practitioner Identifiers, MHDO Provider Database, FIPS codes and the de-identified person directory. This request has been updated to include Practitioner Identifiable Data Elements and the MHDO Provider Database. The purpose of this request is to build upon the previously authorized data request project 2023022401, in which the Maine Cancer Foundation (MCF) used MHDO data to create Maine's first comprehensive Cancer Blueprint. The goal of the Maine Cancer Blueprint is to increase knowledge and awareness of issues related to cancer, expand access to care, and support lifestyle changes to reduce cancer risk by exploring inequities and variations in cancer rates, by examining factors that may influence cancer risk, and analyzing how factors such as social determinants of health, race, ethnicity, insurance status, and socio-economic status influence health outcomes. The current website can be found here https://mainecancer.org/maine-cancer-blueprint. The website provides credible, detailed data points that inform grantmaking and programming efforts by MCF to support targeted interventions and the solicitation of more diverse, sustainable funding mechanisms for the organization, and are publicly available to Maine clinical experts, residents and others who are interested in actionable statistics related to cancer in Maine. The MCF is moving on to Phase Two of this project with the focus on updating existing measures and adding more detailed measures on colon and rectum cancer. The Human Services Research Institute (HSRI) is supporting MCF with using the MHDO data for identifying and creating measures that will report variations in cancer incidence, mortality, cost, screening rates, and access to care across Maine. The dataset may be used for ad hoc reporting requests directed by an advisory group formed by the MCF and comprised of clinical and other public health experts.  
2023122001 Green, Dantrell, Data Quality & Governance Mgr Strata Decision Technology 1/23/2024 3/6/2024 Level I Hospital Inpatient Encounter Data MHDO Level I inpatient hospital data will be used by Strata to assist their Maine Hospital clients with identifying opportunities for improving the quality of care and services they provide to their patients by effectively benchmarking their quality, safety, satisfaction, and utilization to their peers. The data is used to create aggregated benchmarks at both the APR-DRG and MS-DRG level. Hospitals can compare their performance to the benchmark file and determine where there is a variation in care. MHDO’s data is also used internally to benchmark hospital’s service line utilization and cost compared to statewide averages to help inform service line planning. The benchmark files can be used directly in conjunction with hospital client decision support systems, or through a web-based Clinical Analytics tool. Lastly, the benchmark data will be used to provide analytic services to client Hospitals and Health Care systems utilizing PA data sets for the purpose of market share analysis, product line performance, and patient migration patterns.  
2023121303 Birkhimer, Nancy, Accreditation and Performance Improvement Mgr DHHS-ME CDC 1/23/2024 3/6/2024 CY 2022 – CY 2024 Level II Hospital Inpatient and Hospital Outpatient Data including City/Zip, DOB, and Race & Ethnicity data The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (ME CDC) mission is to provide leadership, expertise, information, and tools (such as public health dashboards and reports) to assure conditions in which all Maine people can be healthy. Surveillance of chronic disease, maternal and child health, injury, and suicide is essential to efforts to reduce morbidity and preventable mortality in Maine. The ME CDC Division of Disease Prevention epidemiology team proposes to use inpatient, outpatient, and emergency department hospital discharge data to: (1) Conduct routine surveillance and monitoring of core chronic disease, maternal and child health indicators, and injury indicators for the Maine Shared Community Health Needs Assessment (https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/phdata/MaineCHNA/maine-interactive-health-data.shtml), and publicly post the indicators in cardiovascular health and diabetes prevention, asthma surveillance, suicide and injury prevention, maternal and child health surveillance, and other core activities of the Division of Disease Prevention. (2) Conduct analyses of risk factors associated with preventable morbidity and mortality due to chronic disease, maternal and child health, injury, and suicide. (3) Examine the association between social determinants of health and preventable morbidity and mortality. Analyses will include identification of disparities by race, ethnicity, age, and residential geography. These results of these analyses will enable Maine's public health leaders to conduct effective program planning, obtain crucial federal funding, and make data-informed decisions to support of the health and well-being of the people of Maine. The results will also be used to inform legislative and federal reporting as needed and/or required.  
2023072701 Chin-Fatt, Tanya Sg2, LLC 1/17/2024 2/28/2024 Q1 2023 – Q2 2024 Level II Inpatient Hospital Encounter Data including City/Zip MHDO’s hospital discharge data will be used in Sg2's online analytics tools to explore historical trends and develop demand forecasts by clinical area and geography; allowing Maine Hospitals and Hospital Systems to project and meet future demands by determining the appropriate allocation of resources to improve both the quality and availability of health care in the communities they serve. Sg2 applies proprietary CARE groupings to quantify baseline volumes, then applies its Impact of Change model to project demand for health care services over the next decade, examining the cumulative effects and interdependencies of key impact factors driving change in utilization in major Maine markets. Using both disease-based and MS-DRG–based analyses, the forecast provides a comprehensive picture of how patients will access services along the continuum of care. The resulting output can be visualized at the service area, zip code, service line, disease, and procedure levels which health systems serving Maine residents use to develop their operational and strategic plans.  
2023122101 Woloson, Ann,Executive Director Maine Consumers for Affordable Health Care (CAHC) 12/22/2023 2/6/2024 Hospital Financial Data, specifically 2019 - 2022 audited financial statements for York Hospital, and 2019 – 2021 consolidating schedules of the audited financials for Northern Light Health System. The overall purpose of this data request is to assist the Maine Consumers for Affordable Health Care (CAHC) in their efforts to develop policy proposals aiming to make health care more affordable for Maine citizens. Specifically, CAHC wants to understand the impact that their policy proposals might have on the financial health of Maine hospitals. The hospital financial data requested will supplement MHDO’s standardized Hospital Financial Reports available on the MHDO website.  
2023121501 Weiss, Diana InterMed 12/21/2023 2/5/2024 Q3 2023 – Q2 2024 Level II Medical Claims, with City/Zip and Practitioner Identifiable Data InterMed is requesting additional quarters of data to continue their previously approved project under MHDO data request numbers 2023062902 & 2021121401. InterMed is a physician-owned medical group founded on the goals of patient centered primary care that is enhanced by integrated specialty services. InterMed plans on using MHDO medical claims to identify opportunities to improve access, quality, and cost of care. For example, identify where patients are driving long distances to receive regular care for chronic conditions like diabetes. Identify potential locations to expand services including community based ambulatory care, partnerships with employers and regional health systems that will improve access. That is why InterMed is requesting demographic information to include patient zip code, location of healthcare services and providers throughout the state. InterMed also plans on using claims data to better understand the uptake of telehealth and opportunities to enhance those service and potentially integrate remote monitoring for hard to control conditions like hypertension. InterMed will use MHDO data to develop strategies to address clinical and social determinants of health. For example, using diagnosis to risk stratify populations and inform personalized healthcare services like care coordinators and dietitians for the highest risk populations. InterMed’s use of the MHDO data will directly impact quality and operational improvement activities in our organization and thus benefit our patients. This data will help inform our decisions regarding the allocation of primary care and specialty services and enable us to develop targeted new programs.  
2023112901 Dubois, Philip, Sr. Data Analyst DHHS Maine - MaineCare 12/15/2023 1/30/2024 Q3 2022 - Q2 2023 Level II Dental Claims & Dental Eligibility data, including anonymous payer name ME DHHS MaineCare’s Comprehensive Rate System Evaluation recommended that MaineCare establish rate benchmarks from commercial payers (including Medicare Advantage plans) for dental services to establish MaineCare’s reimbursement rates for those services. The original benchmarks were established in 2022 using MHDO data under previously authorized data request 2021101301. This new data request will be used to update those benchmarks for rates effective in 2024.  
2023080801 Nelson, Shelia, Program Manager DHHS-ME CDC 12/15/2023 1/30/2024 Level II CY 2021 - CY 2022 Medical Claims, Medical Eligibility, including City/Zip, DOB, Race & Ethnicity data, and Anonymous Payor Name/ID This data request seeks to add additional years of MHDO data (2021-2022) to previously approved data request number 2022020201 (2016-2020). The purpose of this study is to use Maine's all-payer claims data to explore claims related to suicide attempts and suicide ideation. Specifically, the Maine CDC's Adolescent Health and Injury Prevention Program in collaboration with the University of Southern Maine's Muskie School of Public Health is interested in examining health care utilization patterns prior to and after an emergency department visit and/or hospitalization for a suicide attempt. Results from these analyses will allow the Maine CDC to identify opportunities for primary prevention and better understand follow-up care received following a suicide attempt. Under DR 2022020201 a study cohort was created by analyzing patterns of care received one year prior and one year after the first self-harm episode identified for the total study population. Results were submitted in a draft issue brief to the Maine CDC, which is currently being reviewed and will be presented to the CDC and other stakeholders they identify in early spring 2024. These results will inform further high-risk subgroup analyses and inclusion of an additional year of data to assess follow-up care for Mainers provided over a longer timeframe.  
2023112801 Winters, Joshua, Actuarial Assistant Maine Bureau of Insurance 12/6/2023 1/18/2024 Custom Level II Extract Q1 2020 - Q2 2023 Commercial only Medical Claims, Pharmacy Claims, Dental Claims data with Payor Name/ID Maine Bureau of Insurance (BOI) plans to utilize MHDO commercial claims data to prepare a report on the geographic area rating factor alterations in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) market. Currently, there are four separate rating area distinctions in the state: Area 1: Cumberland, Sagadahoc, York; Area 2: Kennebec, Knox, Lincoln, Oxford Area 3: Androscoggin, Franklin, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, Waldo; Area 4: Aroostook, Hancock, Washington. Per the ACA, all insurance carriers in the state must uniformly use these rating areas to set their premium rates. The BOI will use this data to assess the feasibility of splitting one of these areas into two, thusly creating five area distinctions instead of four. This will help better map the states natural healthcare utilization patterns and price the different costs of care more accurately by region.