Appendix for the Audit of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services—Barriers to Access to Public Benefits

By improving its data matching methods, DPH could better identify potential participants in the WIC program.

Data Matching: MassHealth (MMIS) to Department of Public Health (Eos) Records

	Women	Children
Number of Records
Records before Data Matching (MMIS)	233,529	716,331
Records before Data Matching (Eos)	189,193	433,286
Unmatched Records Remaining by Original Method	69,530	212,607
Unmatched Records Remaining by Alternative Method	30,687	127,217
Records Matched by Alternative Method That Were Not Matched by Original Method	38,843	85,390
Data-Matching Percentages
Percentage Unmatched by Original Method	29.8%	29.7%
Percentage Unmatched by Alternative Method	13.1%	17.8%
Percentage Difference between Methods	16.6%*	11.9%
Percentage by Which Alternative Method Reduced Unmatched Records	55.9%	40.2%

*    Discrepancies in totals are due to rounding.

Data Matching: Department of Transitional Assistance (BEACON) to DPH (Eos) Records

	Women	Children
Number of Records
Records before Data Matching (BEACON)	25,329	156,270
Records before Data Matching (Eos)	189,193	433,286
Unmatched Records Remaining by Original Method	20,543	95,442
Unmatched Records Remaining by Alternative Method	4,116	50,377
Records Matched by Alternative Method That Were Not Matched by Original Method	16,427	45,065
Data-Matching Percentages
Percentage Unmatched by Original Method	81.1%	61.1%
Percentage Unmatched by Alternative Method	16.3%	32.2%
Percentage Difference between Methods	64.9%*	28.8%*
Percentage by Which Alternative Method Reduced Unmatched Records	80.0%	47.2%

*    Discrepancies in totals are due to rounding.

Date published:	September 9, 2019