The High Cost of Disconnected Data

The U.S. federal government holds data on the birth and death of all Americans. This data – collectively known as vital records data – is collected at the local level and shared with the federal government by state Vital Records Offices (VROs). Vital records data, which also includes other milestone events of people’s lives like marriage, divorce, and adoption data, provides a foundation for how Americans interact with their government and how the government administers its programs. 

When considering administrative uses of vital records, most notably birth and death data, this data serves as the basis for establishing identity and benefit eligibility. Knowing who is alive, how old they are, and when they die provides core data for the federal government to ensure Americans who receive federal financial assistance or other benefits are eligible to receive them. Despite being a critical data source to ensure financial integrity of federal programs, along with many other uses, the efficient and effective use of vital records data by the federal government is limited.

In a new report, Unifying Federal Use of Vital Records Data: A Coordinated Approach to Mitigate Improper Payments, the Data Foundation explores an opportunity for the federal government to leverage vital records data more effectively to significantly reduce improper payments and promote program integrity. Improper payments – payments that should not have been made, should have been made but were not, or were made in the incorrect amount – reached over $200 billion in Fiscal Year 2023. Of this, $35 billion in improper payments are due to issues related to birth, death, and marriage data. Streamlining how the federal government accesses and uses this data can realize billions in federal savings and improve federal service delivery across the country. 

What’s hindering federal efforts to use vital records data to prevent improper payments?

The process for collecting, sharing, and using vital records data is complex. An inherently intergovernmental process, births, deaths, and other vital event data are collected by over 6,000 local registrars and registered through their respective VRO. VROs represent 57 jurisdictions, including all 50 states, Washington, D.C., New York City, and five U.S. territories, and share vital records data with the federal government. Though there are many challenges related to quality and timeliness of collecting and sharing vital records data at local and state levels beyond this scope of this report, there are pertinent issues facing the federal government once it receives this data from VROs.

How the federal government approaches vital records data received from the states is fragmented, making it difficult to efficiently and effectively leverage vital records data to bolster federal program integrity. Federal agencies access vital records data through disparate databases administered across multiple agencies. A lack of federal coordination limits the usefulness of vital records data – and is the root of many problems across the vital records system. 

Understanding system-wide challenges: death data as a use case

Death data provides an ideal use case to understand key challenges facing the vital records system today and allows for a targeted approach to improve how the federal government approaches vital records data for proper administration of its programs. Death data is already used by multiple federal efforts to improve payment integrity and is shared more consistently across states and with the federal government relative to other vital event data, offering a clear place to begin tackling federal vital records coordination challenges.

Challenges related to using death data to prevent improper payments stem from varied levels of technological maturity and capacity and data quality issues across local and state jurisdictions. These problems can be traced back to inconsistent federal investment in data systems and poorly coordinated governance. To improve the quality and usefulness of death data, three interrelated issues must be addressed:

• Misalignment of cost distribution
• Administrative burden affects cost, accuracy, and usefulness
• Data quality and timeliness issues limit integration

Underlying issues related to death data impede the efficacy of federal efforts to address improper payments. Focusing improvement efforts on death data first can demonstrate the value of enhancing the vital records system, streamline existing processes, and set the stage for broader and more transformational improvements and innovations to the entire vital records system.

What can the federal government do to improve how it uses vital records data?

Improving federal use of vital records data will require a comprehensive solution that addresses the root causes of inefficiency and inaccuracy and boosts innovation, allowing federal agencies to access and optimally leverage vital records data to prevent improper payments. A federal Office for Vital Records Coordination and Innovation (OVRCI) can help streamline federal data management by fostering intergovernmental collaboration and establishing unified policies for vital records management for federal agencies.

OVRCI is a proposed federal entity designed to standardize and improve the use of death data across all federal agencies. By focusing initially on death data, with an eye toward expanding to other vital records, the OVRCI would serve as facilitator and coordinator for the federal government’s approach to vital records data. The new Office would:

• Centralize federal coordination and access, facilitating improved cross-agency data sharing,
• Leverage existing infrastructure while respecting state ownership of vital records data,
• Align the federal funding model, and 
• Establish robust governance structure and support collaboration

By doing so, the OVRCI can unify federal policies and processes related to the access and use of vital records, taking steps toward mitigating key challenges faced by the system today. Not only can a more coordinated federal approach improve federal use of vital records data, it can also improve the federal government’s ability to support efforts to address data quality and timeliness at state and local levels.

Effectively implemented, the proposed OVRCI can provide forward looking leadership across the governance of all vital records data – initially addressing improper payments, but able to expand beyond this scope to unlock future innovations.

What are the next steps to advance federal coordination around vital records data?

To lay the groundwork for an OVRCI, Congress and the Executive Branch both have roles to play. In this report, the Data Foundation presents various recommendations to advance the implementation of a federal OVRCI. 

Designed to thoroughly assess the feasibility of the OVRCI, understand legal and operational implications, and build essential stakeholder support, these recommendations offer preliminary steps to making transformational change. The Data Foundation’s recommendations ensure policymakers base any future decision to establish the OVRCI on comprehensive information and broad consensus, maximizing its potential for success and positive impact on federal data management and fiscal responsibility. 

How can the OVRCI facilitate future innovation and efficiencies?

A more coordinated federal approach would address immediate concerns around improper payments while laying the groundwork for a more efficient, accurate, and useful vital records system more broadly. A federal OVRCI has the potential to be a catalyst for innovation far beyond its initial scope of reducing improper payments – designed to be agile and adaptive to emerging technologies and needs, the OVRCI could drive advancements across critical areas and spur innovation. 

For example, a future focus of the OVRCI may include enhancing the capabilities and interoperability of the data systems used to exchange vital records data and funding mechanisms to do so, addressing data quality challenges at the data collection level, or exploring opportunities to leverage innovative technology to improve data collection, exchange, and use. As the foundation of identity, leveraging vital records more efficiently and effectively could also enable secure, verifiable identity solutions and digital credentials – with implications for digital experience, commerce, public trust, and even national security. Streamlined, standardized policies across the vital records data system could also support the implementation of AI and machine learning technologies, potentially enhancing data quality, detecting anomalies, and providing predictive analytics for research. 

Innovations facilitated by a more coordinated approach to sharing and managing vital records information could revolutionize how vital records are used across government services, healthcare, and the private sector, leading to more efficient, accurate, and responsive systems. As the federal government moves forward with exploring and implementing the OVRCI, embracing these possibilities could position the U.S. vital records system at the forefront of public sector innovation, ensuring the federal government continues to meet the evolving needs in the digital age.

Interested in learning more?

Read the Data Foundations new report on how the federal government approaches vital records data to detect and prevent improper payments, and learn more about the proposed OVRCI and how to support it. 

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