Health Equity Data Access Program (HEDAP)

The Health Equity Data Access Program (HEDAP) offers funding for six individual seats in the CMS Virtual Research Data Center (VRDC), enabling researchers to access restricted CMS data for health services research focused on health disparities. These seats are allocated to support applied research projects that examine physical, oral, and behavioral health, population health, and social determinants of health, with an emphasis on racial and ethnic minority groups, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals, those with limited English proficiency, rural residents, and populations affected by persistent poverty or inequality. The program prioritizes innovative methods that use CMS data to identify, assess, and evaluate disparities among Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP enrollees, with the goal of generating actionable insights for CMS and its partners to address inequities in underserved communities. Each VRDC seat is funded for a 36-month period, contingent on available resources, and the program seeks to build long-term research capacity by enhancing researchers’ ability to work with CMS data in future projects. HEDAP explicitly encourages proposals that incorporate intersectionality, recognizing that individuals often belong to multiple marginalized groups, leading to compounded health and social inequities as well as unique strengths. The expected outcomes include robust evidence that helps CMS and its collaborators design targeted interventions to eradicate systemic disparities. Researchers interested in applying should direct inquiries to HEResearch@cms.hhs.gov, and the opportunity is posted under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services within the Department of Health and Human Services.