Seminar - January 20, 2011

Dr. Keely Cofrin Allen is the director of the Office of Health Care Statistics (OHCS), Utah Department of Health and Executive Secretary for the Utah Health Data Committee. OHCS is responsible for the management of nine administrative rules requiring statewide collection and dissemination of health care data from Utah hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, emergency rooms, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), preferred provider organizations (PPOs), Children’s Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) and state Medicaid.  Dr. Cofrin Allen oversees the development of annual and special ad hoc reports from the facility datasets, health plan satisfaction surveys and HEDIS reporting.  She also coordinates the yearly release of consumer-friendly hospital comparison reports encompassing six different health conditions and numerous high-volume inpatient procedures. The OHCS houses the Utah All Payer Database which contains claims, enrollment, and pharmacy data from Utah health insurance providers.  This new database is one of the key components of Utah’s Health Reform agenda by providing quality and cost transparency for healthcare in the state.. Currently Dr. Cofrin Allen serves on NCQA’s Public Sector Advisory Council, the steering committee for Utah’s  Chartered Value Exchange and serves as an advisor to the Utah Health Care Reform Task Force, and was recently elected to the National Association of Health Data Organization’s Board of Directors. Prior to her work as OHCS Director, Dr. Cofrin Allen served as the Health Plan Program Manager for OHCS and conducted HEDIS and CAHPS data collection, analysis and reporting. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Utah and has worked in health care quality research since 1998.