Health Equity Data Access Program (HEDAP)

The Health Equity Data Access Program (HEDAP) provides funding for researchers to access CMS restricted data for minority health research. The program supports specific applied research projects that relate to creative and innovative methods utilizing CMS data to identify, document, assess, and evaluate health disparities among Medicare and Medicaid and CHIP enrollees. The project should enhance the capacity of the researcher to understand and utilize CMS data in future research projects. Some key areas of focus include physical health, oral health, behavioral health, population health, and social determinants of health, with a particular emphasis on racial and ethnic minority groups, people with disabilities, and other underserved populations. • The program will provide funding for six researchers to access the CMS Virtual Research Data Center (VRDC) for a period of 36 months. • The program encourages cutting-edge proposals that explore intersectionality and health disparities. • The results of the program will provide CMS and its partners with actionable information on subgroups of enrollees, aiding efforts to identify and eradicate health disparities in underserved populations.