Collection of Race, Ethnicity, Language (REL) Data in Medicaid Applications: A 50-state Review of the Current Landscape

This issue brief documents how states are collecting information about race, ethnicity, and language on their Medicaid applications. The information presented in this brief draws from the State Health Access Data Assistance Center’s (SHADAC) review of all 50 states’ paper Medicaid applications and 33 states’ online Medicaid applications. The authors provide an overview of REL data collection standards and examine state Medicaid application’s question structure, answer options, and instructional languages.