The For Your Health News Podcast explores the issues shaping health and healthcare in communities across the United States. Through conversations with experts, advocates, researchers, policymakers, and community leaders, the podcast breaks down complex health topics, examines barriers to health access, and shares evidence-based insights and solutions that put people first.
How do we ensure that every community is seen and served by our healthcare system? It starts with the data.
In this episode of the For Your Health News Podcast, Aishat Magbade, who works in Legislative & Regulatory Policy and Community Health Policy at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, discusses the Data Equity Coalition’s State Advocacy to Align with SPD 15 Toolkit.
Following updates to the Office of Management and Budget’s Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 (SPD 15), the conversation explores the opportunity to modernize how race and ethnicity data are collected across the United States—and why state-level alignment is an important part of implementation.
Aishat explains what the updated standards mean, how the advocacy toolkit can support state-level advocates, and why better data can help improve health outcomes and health access across communities.
The discussion also examines the role of the Data Equity Coalition and how collective advocacy can help states align their data practices with the new federal standards.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn: • What SPD 15 is and what the updated federal standards mean • Why state-level alignment is important • How the State Advocacy to Align with SPD 15 Toolkit can support advocates • Why stronger race and ethnicity data can improve health decision-making • How better data can support Black, Hispanic, Asian, MENA, LGBTQIA+ and other communities • How the Data Equity Coalition is supporting policy alignment and advocacy
Resources Mentioned: Data Equity Coalition: dataequitycoalition.com
Learn more about the National Minority Quality Forum: nmqf.org
Read more health news: fyh.news
SPEAKER_02
Hi, this is Audwa Chemating from the National Minority Quality Forum, and this is For Your Health News. Your health, your news, your power. And I'm here with Aishat, and we're here to talk about the landmark initiative between the National Minority Quality Forum and Blue Cross Blue Shield, the Data Equity Coalition.
SPEAKER_00
Hi, Aishat. Hi, Aja. Would you like to introduce yourself? Yes, my name is Aishat Magdre. I'm the Director of Community Health Policy at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.
SPEAKER_02
And the reason we have smiles on our faces is because progress is happening, y'all. And really a major announcement was made at this year's 2026 annual leadership summit from hosted by the National Minority Quality Forum right here in Washington, DC, by the Data Equity Coalition. Aisha, do you want to share what that announcement was?
SPEAKER_01
Yes, the Data Equity Coalition released our state advocacy toolkit to align state advocacy efforts on data collection on race and ethnicity with ONB's SPD 15 update from 2024.
SPEAKER_02
Okay, she just said a whole lot there. So let's roll it back and figure out and talk about how we got here. You know, for those of us that have been passionate about health equity and access to optimal health care for a long time, maybe before it was sexy to talk about health equity, uh, data was always the problem. What's happening with us? What's happening with our communities? Um, what does the data say about what health concerns are really impacting our communities? And about 30 years ago, you know, the conversation was about the lack of data about racial and ethnic and soci data, uh, demographic data being represented in our health systems so that the health system could be more responsive to our communities. How would you describe the progress over the last 30 years to the update that just happened in 2024?
SPEAKER_01
Thanks, Audra. So in 2024, we had an update to SPD-15 from ONB. So the last update was in 1997. So everyone has filled out their race and ethnicity when they filled out a form, whether it's through a job application or any sort of enrollment form. But the new update actually combined the race and ethnicity question into one question and allowed for a broader list of minimum categories. So it included a Middle, Eastern, North African category, separate from the white category, and also included a broader range of ethnicities that people can select from. And also included the ability to actually write in your ethnicity and select more than one race or ethnicity when you fill out this question. So this allows people to actually really pinpoint who they are and allows them to be seen in the data, which is really important for data disaggregation, which is something that allows you to really break down larger data sets into smaller data sets to show underlying disparities and allow people to really be seen in the data that's collected, um, so which is really important.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, I love what you just said about people finally being able to be seen and also identify for themselves how they want to be identified. I mean, we've heard this debate over time, right? That, oh, am I this box, am I that box? It's not definitive enough. And so I think that's really amazing. How can this now translate at the state level? What could what do we need to see happen since that update in 2024 by OMB that needs to happen now at the state level, would you say?
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so federal agencies have until 2029 to become compliant with these new standards. So states now have the opportunity to also become compliant with these new standards and update their own data collection practices. So this toolkit, it can be used by coalition members and other stakeholders to work with their state legislatures to update their data standards. The toolkit includes legislative language that could be used to introduce um bills within states. There's also talking points that can be used when talking about this with different members of their state legislatures and different regulators. And there's also talking points and one pages that can be used among on the community level. Oh, really? So that different people can talk to their community members and just tell them why it is important for this data collection standards to be adopted across the country.
SPEAKER_02
And if we were to sort of give maybe the 30-second elevator pitch of what community folks could say, what you all could say as our listeners and subscribers about why this is important, what advice would you give to folks to explain to their state representatives about why this is really important for them to do?
SPEAKER_01
So data is used to inform a lot of decisions that are being made on all levels of government. And if you're not seen in the data, then you're not really being considered in all of the solutions that are happening on all these different levels of government. So you want to be able to be seen in the data so that you are also being considered in all of the policies, regulations, and laws that are being written. So that's why it's really important for you to ensure that you are being seen in the data so that you are also being considered in the laws and making sure that they also reflect who you are, so that you are not being negatively impacted by any of the laws or regulations that are being made.
SPEAKER_02
I couldn't have said it better myself. Uh, NMQF has always been about data for a reason. As the largest health equity organization and one of the oldest, we know and we have seen how much systems can change when the data points out the issues. And so, like you said, if we're not seeing in the data, then the system can't move how it should and be responsive to our needs. So we're really excited to be involved in this initiative. We're really excited that this toolkit has come out. I would love to share with our readers and listeners about where they can access this toolkit.
SPEAKER_01
Yes, so um the toolkit actually launched during the NMQF Leadership Summit this week, um, and it's also available on the DataEquity Coalition.com website.
SPEAKER_02
Okay, you heard it. ww.dataequitycoalition.com. Please access this toolkit, utilize it, talk to your state reps, talk to uh any of the policymakers that you can talk to that hey, let's get compliant, let's make sure that we integrate and make sure that we have the proper data collection standards and our state before what year? 2029. Okay, you've heard it from here first at For Your Health News. Thank you so much for listening. Please subscribe to learn more and make sure that you get the latest updates.
