Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) promotes opportunities for the coordination and alignment of HHS data collection activities in a manner that supports synergy across systems achieves efficiencies, minimizes non-productive redundancy, assures quality, utility and timeliness, and addresses high priority data gaps in a coordinated fashion.  Survey measure alignment involves the harmonization and convergence of current and future data sources through the data collection processes, analysis and dissemination policies. Survey alignment is also endorsed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In designing federal information collections, OMB guidance for statistical surveys notes that agencies are expected to review existing studies to determine whether the way information is collected in existing surveys will fulfill the agency’s needs. Federal agencies are encouraged to take advantage of the developmental work from existing federal surveys to inform the design of their own surveys.

It is widely acknowledged that the HHS family of surveys represents the highest level of scientific and technical standards, and many of these surveys set the national and international survey standard in their class. In addition, the portfolio itself is robust and dynamic and reflects considerable flexibility to respond to national health policy priorities. In some instances, however, the surveys sometimes produce different estimates for the same phenomena, raising concerns about accuracy and consistency for policy makers as well as the public. This unintended variation in survey estimates on key characteristics such as health insurance coverage has been recognized for years and has been a topic of interest and concern across the federal statistical agencies, academic institutions, and advocacy groups. These differences in estimates have been attributed to a range of survey design and methodological characteristics, one especially important one relates to question alignment or how questions are worded and how the resulting information is edited and presented.

HHS recently conducted a major review of its survey data collections, to identify areas for survey alignment and harmonization in four key areas: health insurance coverage; tobacco use and control; substance abuse and mental health; and sexual orientation and gender identity.  The goal of this alignment initiative was to increase comparability of survey-based estimates in priority areas by adopting uniform core questions and preferred practices and by establishing a process for aligning the dissemination of information produced in these areas from health surveys conducted or sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This presentation will provide an overview of the alignment process, findings and preliminary recommendations to improve survey alignment and integration across HHS surveys in key areas.