Payer Data Reporting

Primary and Behavioral Health Care Expenditures Data Submissions

Overview

In 2022, Massachusetts enacted Chapter 177: An Act Addressing Barriers to Care for Mental Health, charging CHIA with monitoring “costs, cost trends, price, quality, utilization, and patient outcomes related to behavioral health service subcategories.”

Consistent with CHIA’s mission to create and curate data assets that support evidence-based policy-making and program oversight, the agency is collecting additional detailed information about primary care and behavioral health (PCBH) spending in the Commonwealth. The data specifications support directives from the legislature as well as future initiatives and policies related to primary care and behavioral health.

Submission Deadline

Data submission materials must be submitted no later than October 5, 2026.

Reporting Requirements

Payers must submit data to CHIA annually in accordance with regulation 957 CMR 2.00. This regulation governs the methodology and filing requirements for health care payers to calculate and report primary care and behavioral health expenditures.

All primary care and behavioral health (PCBH) data is submitted using the pre-formatted Excel template.

Registration Instructions

New users must register to submit data via CHIA Submissions.

1

Complete User Agreement

Complete and sign the CHIA Data Reporter User Agreement (DRUA) after reviewing the DRUA instructions. Note that each individual user for an organization must complete the form.

2

Submit User Agreement

Submit the completed Data Reporter User Agreement to DL-Data-Submitter-HelpDesk@chiamass.gov. You will be notified when your account is ready to use.

Additional Information

Behavioral health service subcategories include, but are not limited to, mental health, substance use disorder, outpatient, inpatient, services for children, services for adults, and provider types as defined in M.G.L. c. 12C, § 10 Section 21A. Chapter 177 requires CHIA to publish information that separately measures mental health and substance use disorders across specific settings and populations.

In February 2020, CHIA held a listening session to solicit public comments and feedback on proposed updates to CHIA’s data specifications to better measure primary care and behavioral health spending in the Commonwealth.

The listening session presentation focused on the following topics related to the draft data specifications:

  • Proposed measurement approach
  • Feedback from stakeholders about existing approaches to classifying provider and service types
  • Timing considerations

Get Support

For questions specifically related to payer data reporting, email Erin.Bonney@chiamass.gov.