California Healthcare Payments Database Affordability Research Fund RFP Grant

California Healthcare Payments Database Affordability Research Fund RFP Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: California Health Care Foundation
Last Updated: January 12, 2026

Summary

The California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) has established a $1 million funding pool for research on consumer affordability challenges and cost drivers using the Healthcare Payments Database (HPD). This initiative aims to support up to five grantees, with awards of up to $500,000 available this and the following spring. Researchers are encouraged to utilize alternative dissemination channels outside of CHCF’s traditional publication routes to share their findings.

Overview

Summary The California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) is an independent philanthropy dedicated to advancing measurable improvements in the health care delivery system for the people of California, particularly those with low incomes and those not well served by the status quo. CHCF has created a $1 million affordability research funding pool for researchers interested in using California’s new Healthcare Payments Database (HPD) to study consumer affordability challenges or systemwide cost drivers or both in the state. Up to $500,000 of this funding will be awarded this spring and up to $500,000 will be awarded in the following spring. This RFP is intended to identify an initial set of up to five grantees. Initial award decisions will be made by CHCF but not finalized until projects have been separately and formally approved by the HPD Data Release Committee of the California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI). Awards may be used to offset HPD data fees and grantee research time. Applicants should plan to use dissemination channels outside CHCF’s traditional publication pipeline (e.g., peer-reviewed journal submission, non-CHCF issue brief) for the results of their work. This funding pool does not preclude funding of additional projects utilizing HPD or other data sources that CHCF may consider and fund through its programmatic work. Project Background The Healthcare Payments Database (HPD) is California’s all-payer claims database, or APCD. The HPD is a research database composed of health care administrative data, including claims and encounter data generated by transactions among payers and providers on behalf of insured individuals. California’s HPD includes billions of claim and encounter records submitted from California payers, including Medi-Cal managed care plans. The most recent year of data includes claims and encounters for 35.4 million Californians, including 13.5 million Medi-Cal enrollees. There is a well-defined set of criteria, policies, and procedures for access to and release of nonpublic HPD data. Users can apply for access to a secure data enclave with statistical tools (e.g., SQL, SAS, Stata, R, Python) and processes for linking to external data sets. California Healthcare Payments Database Affordability Research Fund RFP CHCF has created a $1 million affordability research funding pool for researchers interested is using California’s new HPD to study consumer affordability challenges or systemwide cost drivers or both in the state. Up to $500,000 of this funding will be awarded this spring and up to $500,000 will be awarded the following spring. Initial award decisions will be made by CHCF but not finalized until projects have been separately and formally approved by HCAI’s HPD Data Release Committee. Awards may be used to offset HPD data fees and grantee research time. Applicants should plan to use dissemination channels outside CHCF’s traditional publication pipeline (e.g., peer-reviewed journal submission, non-CHCF issue brief) for the results of their work. This funding pool does not preclude funding of additional projects utilizing HPD or other data sources that CHCF may consider and fund through its programmatic work.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. CHCF welcomes applications from a broad group of researchers, including those who are earlier in their careers, those who self-identify with a demographic group currently underrepresented in health services research, and those who research interests include health care affordability challenges among historically disadvantaged groups.