Subject and Course Guides: Health Policy: Data and Laws

Reliable Health Data

Health Data Web Pages

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
This web site from the US Department of Health and Human Services provides copious health care data, including information for policymakers and Quality Indicators for health care nationally and by state.
CDC: Health, United States
The CDC creates Health, United States each year to collect information on trends in health statistics.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: Rates and Statistics
Health care financing, health indicators, and benefit details for Medicare Programs.
Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project
HCUP is the Nation’s most comprehensive source of hospital data, including information on in-patient care, ambulatory care, and emergency department visits. HCUP enables researchers, insurers, policymakers and others to study health care delivery and patient outcomes over time, and at the national, regional, State, and community levels. This is provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Kaiser Family Foundation Health Costs Data
Data on the cost of health care, from health insurance to drug costs. KFF has many other helpful data sources, including State Health Facts, Global Health Facts, Medicaid data, and employer benefits.
National Center for Health Statistics
The National Center for Health Statistics provides access to numerous data sources, including CDC Wonder, Health Data Interactive, and VitalStats.
National Center for Health Workforce Analysis
The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis (through the US Department of Health and Human Services) estimates the supply and demand for health workers in the US and develops tools and resources to inform decision-making one health care workforce investments. Data available for international, national, state, and county workforces.
Texas Department of State Health Services Health Statistics
A collection of health data sources from the State of Texas, including the Health Status of Texas and Texas Health Indicators.
Country Planning Cycle Database
The Country Planning Cycle Database is an open, online resource that provides a country by country overview of the national planning, health programmatic and project cycles, together with information on donor involvement and technical support, for the 195 Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Evidence Informed Policy Network
EVIPNet promotes the systematic use of health research evidence in policy-making. Focusing on low and middle-income countries, EVIPNet promotes partnerships at the country level between policy-makers, researchers and civil society in order to facilitate both policy development and policy implementation through the use of the best scientific evidence available.
HealthData.gov
This site is dedicated to making high value health data more accessible to entrepreneurs, researchers, and policy makers in the hopes of better health outcomes for all.
Data.gov
Explore datasets, tools, and applications related to health and health care. These resources come from across the Federal Government with the goal of improving the health and lives of all Americans.
Health Services Research and Information Central-Data, Tools, and Statistics
HSR Information Central is not an index of all health services resources on the Web. Rather, it contains selective links representing a sample of available information. Items are selected for their quality, authority of authorship, uniqueness, and appropriateness.
Texas Health Data
The Texas Health Facts Profiles provide at-a-glance health and demographic data for numerous counties and regions around the state. In each view, statewide rates and averages are included for comparison and to gauge performance on specific health indicators. Data for the fact sheets have been collected from various programs within the Texas Department of State Health Services and the Health and Human Services Commission, as well as the Texas State Data Center and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive
The SAMHDA site, presented by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and RTI International, offers our users an easy way to get to the data they need for their analyses.

We encourage legacy and new users to return to the site often to explore the spectrum of available data offerings. We will update and expand our resources, tools, and documentation frequently to deliver the most relevant data for your needs.
Medicare Data
These are the official datasets used on the Medicare.gov Hospital Compare Website provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. These data allow you to compare the quality of care at over 4,000 Medicare-certified hospitals across the country.
Health Resources and Services Administration Data Warehouse
The HRSA Data Warehouse provides maps, data, reports and dashboard to the public. Our data integrates with external sources, such as the U.S. Census Bureau, providing information about HRSA’s grants, loan and scholarship programs, health centers and other public health programs and services.

State and Federal Laws

CDC Legislation, Regulations, and Policies
A collection of links to federal health legislation, regulation, and policy sources.

Nexis Uni (was LexisNexis Academic) This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni™ features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis®—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790—with an intuitive interface that offers quick discovery across all content types, personalization features such as Alerts and saved searches and a collaborative workspace with shared folders and annotated documents.
Nexis Uni does not require an account, you may create one in order to save information from your session. To bypass registration, click 'Continue as Guest' located to the right of register/sign in area on the Nexis Uni home screen. NOTE: Users accessing Nexis Uni may experience security issues when accessing the database. Please refer to guide on how to add Nexis Uni as a "Trusted Site."
If experiencing issues accessing Nexis Uni while off-campus, please try using the full-tunnel VPN option. See instructions for full-tunnel set up for Pulse Secure.

Other Data

To understand policy or the need for it, you will sometimes need other types of data, such as demographics or economic information. These are reliable resources for that type of information.

Data Axle Reference Solutions This link opens in a new window
A directory of detailed information on more than 14 million U.S. businesses and 210 million U.S. residents. NOTE: Only 50 simultaneous users allowed.
A directory of detailed information on more than 14 million U.S. businesses and 210 million U.S. residents. Researchers can search by company name, geographic area, business type or by combinations of these criteria. In addition to address and phone number, each entry includes officer names and titles, parent and subsidiary information, SIC and NAICS codes, competitors, and public filings information.

NOTE: Only 50 simultaneous users allowed.

American Fact Finder
Your source for U.S. population, housing, economic, and geographic information, created by the US Census Bureau.
North Central Texas Council of Governments
Demographic Data for North Central Texas. The Research and Information Services Department collects and compiles a variety of demographic data for the North Central Texas region. Data availability varies by city and county.
Texas State Data Center
The Texas State Data Center and Office of the State Demographer, in cooperation with a network of affiliates, functions as a focal point for the distribution of Census information for Texas. The Center also disseminates population estimates and projections for Texas, as well as other information from the federal government, state government, and other sources.
globalEDGE
Business and economic data for each of the 50 states and for international markets.

Searching Online for Data

Find this kind of information online by searching for what you hope to find along with the phrase site:.gov

If you have an idea of which organization puts out the data, you can also search Google for information within that organization by adding site:ahrq.gov (for example).

Health Policy: Data and Laws

Why Use These

Reliable Health Data

State and Federal Laws

Other Data

Searching Online for Data