Resources


Data-Driven Justice Monthly Call: Getting to Yes: Drafting a Data Sharing Agreement

Webinar

This webinar shares strategies to analyze data-sharing issues and provides guidance on key elements to include in data-sharing agreements.

On this Data-Driven Justice webinar, learn strategies from the Network for Public Health Law for working with attorneys to analyze data-sharing issues involving health information and receive recommendations and guidance on key elements to include in data sharing agreements.

Frequently Asked Questions: Data-Driven Justice and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

Publication

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provides answers to many of the most common questions and misperceptions regarding HIPAA.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is frequently characterized as a barrier to implementing a smarter, more data-driven approach to diverting the high-utilizer population and providing treatment and services. This document addresses what HIPAA restricts and—more importantly—how HIPAA can be used as a tool to better serve high-utilizers and other populations in your community.

Identifying High Utilizers

Publication

Combining data from the justice, health, and human services systems helps communities identify highest utilizers of multiple services and their needs.

Defining and identifying high-utilizer calls for consensus among the justice, health, and human services systems and a formal agreement to share data. Each jurisdiction will determine a definition of high utilizers that works for that jurisdiction. Collaborators on data-driven justice strategies should bring together the appropriate legal, policy, and technology leaders to begin the conversation on identifying high utilizers.

King County Health and Human Services Transformation: The Familiar Faces Initiative

Publication

This document details a cross-sector approach to assisting frequent utilizers of the jail who also have mental health and/or substance use conditions.

The Familiar Faces initiative is systems mapping, design, and improvement work centered on creating a system of integrated care for complex health populations that can eventually benefit any user of publicly funded health services. Familiar Faces is a sentinel population defined as individuals who are frequent utilizers of the King County Jail (defined as having been booked four or more times in a 12-month period) and who also have mental health and/or substance use conditions.

Research Report: A Blueprint for Interagency and Cross-Jurisdictional Data Sharing

Publication

This report offers practical strategies for executing successful data integration projects across agencies and jurisdictions.

This blueprint, written to inform the efforts of researchers and analysts in local government agencies and in research settings, combines lessons learned from a wide-ranging literature review with the direct experience of Urban Institute (Urban) researchers, who collected, integrated, mapped, and analyzed interagency and cross-jurisdictional data from the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, a project referred to throughout this blueprint as Metropolitan Crime Mapping. The goal of this blueprint is to encourage similar projects by identifying the opportunities that cross-sectional analysis offers, suggesting strategies to overcome barriers that researchers may encounter, and providing an overview of what the future holds for cross-sector data sharing and analysis.

Sample Data Sharing Agreements

Publication

These agreements were used as part of Camden ARISE, which linked data from criminal justice, health care, and housing in Camden, New Jersey.

Cross-sector data sharing is lauded as an integral part of complex care. Sharing data among multiple sectors—such as behavioral health, medicine, criminal justice, housing, and education—seems like a straightforward way to understand people’s complex health and social needs and provide whole-person care. In practice, however, sharing data is not always so simple. These sample data sharing agreements were used as part of Camden ARISE, which linked data from criminal justice, health care, and housing in Camden, New Jersey. The agreements can be adapted for use by other cross-sector groups seeking to share data.

Sharing Data for Better Results: A Guide to Building Integrated Data Systems Compatible With Federal Privacy Laws

Publication

This toolkit aims to help cities successfully navigate the balance between privacy and delivery of efficient and effective services.

This toolkit summarizes important information that elected officials, agency leaders, and city staff need to know about the federal laws and regulations related to individual privacy rights that govern data-sharing.  The purpose is to support local leaders in using integrated data to improve services while respecting the privacy of residents.

Super Utilizer Summit: Common Themes From Innovative Complex Care Management Programs

Publication

This report presents the summit’s common themes and key recommendations for building better systems of care for high utilizers.

To explore how Medicaid could best advance models for this high-need group of patients, the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS), in partnership with the National Governors Association, hosted a Super-Utilizer Summit on February 11 and 12, 2013. The summit brought together leaders from super-utilizer programs across the country, states, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) alliances, health plans, and other key stakeholders to share strategies for changing how our health care system interacts with these high-need, high-cost patients. The meeting was made possible through the generous support of RWJF and the Atlantic Philanthropies. The appendices include materials related to existing complex care management programs that can be educational resources for states and policymakers considering ways to implement, spread, and sustain such programs.

Using and Sharing Data Templates

Online Resource

These sample resources can help programs and agencies share data and information and develop better programs for individuals with SUD.

Using and sharing data to provide the appropriate response to high utilizers’ needs is challenging work, but it results in meaningful outcomes for individuals, families, and the community. Effective use of data can also reduce the number of individuals held in jail pretrial simply because they cannot afford bail, reduce recidivism, and help develop better programs for individuals with mental health and substance use disorders. Creating a network for information sharing and engaging in effective planning and coordination is critical to building a consensus around which data can and will be shared. Key stakeholders must understand the legal framework for information sharing to design and implement effective criminal justice and health and human services collaborations. Staff members must be trained to respond to questions about the purpose and limits of data sharing.