Edward J. Fox, PhD

This page documents the series of reports produced by the California Rural Indian Health Board (CRIHB) that examined the identification of American Indian and Alaska Native people and Indian Health Programs in Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) data. The reports form an important historical record of early Tribal efforts to improve federal administrative data. They are presented here in chronological order as primary sources, with links to the reports where available and notes on their focus.

The reports should be read as a sequence of data inventories, analyses, and recommendations—not as evidence that every recommendation was implemented. Later work, including the CMS–IHS Data Match, builds on but is distinct from this earlier CRIHB series.

Reports in chronological order

2007 — Identifying the data gaps
Gaps and Strategies to Improve American Indian and Alaska Native Data for Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP (August 31, 2007).
Reviews the adequacy of CMS data for identifying AI/AN enrollees and Indian health care providers and recommends strategies for improvement.
CRIHB original / available version · See also CRIHB’s CMS Data Reports index.

2009 — Medicaid and Medicare program data

  • American Indian and Alaska Native Medicaid Program and Policy Data Summary Report (2009).
  • American Indian and Alaska Native Medicare Program and Policy Statistics Summary Report (2009).

2010–2012 — Medicaid and Medicare data collection

  • American Indian and Alaska Native Medicaid Program and Policy Data (2010).
  • American Indians and Alaska Natives: Medicaid State Data Collection (2010).
  • Integrating Medicaid and Indian Health Service Data (2011) — listed in CRIHB’s index; a verified full-text link has not yet been located.
  • Medicare Statistics for American Indians and Alaska Natives (2012) — cited in the site bibliography; a verified full-text link has not yet been located.

2014 — Medicare enrollment, health status, service use, and payment
Medicare Enrollment, Health Status, Service Use and Payment Data for American Indians & Alaska Natives (February 2014).
Examines Medicare data files for enrollment, utilization, health status, and payment analysis.

How to read this history
Together these reports document a progression from identifying limitations in CMS data systems to examining Medicaid and Medicare enrollment and utilization. The historical question is which data problems were documented, what strategies were recommended, and what later work shows has changed.

The CMS–IHS Data Match is a distinct later Medicaid enrollment effort and should not be conflated with the earlier CRIHB Medicare-focused reports. The two answer different questions and rely on different data sources.

Related resources on this site