Linking birth certificates with Medicaid data to enhance population health assessment: methodological issues addressed.

This study linked birth certificates with Minnesota Medicaid deliveries in order to identify Medicaid births. This article describes the link between methodology and results. Medicaid claims from 1997 were used to identify women with a delivery code.

Recommendations for addressing quality and health assessment initiatives in Minnesota.

A recent priority of the Assessment Initiative in Minnesota has been to develop recommendations for addressing quality and health assessment activities in the state. These recommendations consist of a comprehensive array of issues, most of which where there was fairly strong consensus and a few of which where there were differing perspectives among key stakeholders. There are some significant opportunities for advancing quality and health assessment activities in Minnesota in the context of state and national programs in health care and public health.