About the Medical Care Statistics Section (MCSS)
The Medical Care Statistics Section (MCSS) provides support to the California Department of Health Care Services and interested parties by developing reports and files on Medi-Cal enrollments and fee-for-service utilization. Although many of our reports and data files are accessible from this Internet site, we also do ad hoc reports, for a fee.
The typical report users are agencies concerned with issues of health care costs, access, utilization as well as the health status of the Medi-Cal population.
The data have some utility for study of the efficacy or cost effectiveness of selected treatment or pharmaceutical regimes; however, the fact that Medi-Cal eligibles are not necessarily representative of the overall population, combined with the short and discontinuous eligibility pattern, present methodological challenges to such research.
The paid claims are a "transaction" data base as distinct from a "longitudinal or person" data base. As such, they are most useful to organizations skilled with claims analysis, whose staff have knowledge of the complexity of Medi-Cal and which have the capability for high volume data processing. Claim volume in the current year exceeds 100,000,000.
The Medical Care Statistics Section only accesses Medi-Cal data, so we do not have information on such programs as the California Children's Services/Genetically Handicapped Persons Program (CCS/GHPP), Child's Health and Disability Prevention Program (CHDP), and County Medical Services Program (CMSP). Please see MCSS recommended websites for contacts to other data sources. Questions about specific information on Medi-Cal program and policy should be addressed to that specific program.
Please note that recent changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) have added new restrictions as to the type of entities that can receive personal medical data and the purposes for which the data can be used. Please refer to HIPAA Privacy Rule Information page for more information.
Please send comments and suggestions regarding the Medical Care Statistics Section Website to: mcssweb@dhcs.ca.gov