Updated research request forms and data security approval required beginning 4/24/23
Knowledgebase
Introductory
Articles
CMS offers files from aggregate data to individual person level data. This article describes the differences between the aggregate, public use files, the limited data sets,…
This article describes the Federal Regulations that govern the release of CMS data for research.
The purpose of this article is to identify 1) common strengths of Medicare and Medicaid administrative data and 2) broad limitations for researchers to consider when…
Popular
Articles
This article provides guidance on how to identify hospital emergency room claims from the Medicare files.
Providers that bill Medicare use codes for patient diagnoses and codes for care, equipment, and medications provided. This articles provides resources to identify the codes…
To describe the CMS cell size suppression policy and provide examples of common scenarios and possible options.
Featured Article
CMS must ensure that all research requests for identifiable (RIF) data have IRB documentation to satisfy the requirements of the Common Rule and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This article describes the requirements…
The purpose of this article is to describe how to use the Medicare managed care enrollment information found in the Medicare Beneficiary Summary File (MBSF) Research Identifiable File (RIF) or Denominator in the Limited Data Set (LDS). Medicare managed care is sometimes also called Medicare Advantage, Medicare Part C or Medicare + Choice.
Medicare managed care enrollment has fluctuated over the years and is a frequently requested statistic. Often researchers are interested in penetration rates or the percentage of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in a Medicare managed care plan. These plans are also referred to as Medicare Part C, Medicare Advantage (MA), or Medicare Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs).
This article describes three variable groups that can be used to identify managed care enrollment for Medicaid beneficiaries. Codes for the variables are also given that identify beneficiaries who received their comprehensive medical care under the Fee-For-Service (FFS) payment system.
This article provides resources for the assessment of the quantity and quality of managed care organization (MCO) encounter data in the Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX) files.
The purpose of this article is to identify 1) common strengths of Medicare and Medicaid administrative data and 2) broad limitations for researchers to consider when requesting and using the data.
Providers that bill Medicare use codes for patient diagnoses and codes for care, equipment, and medications provided. This articles provides resources to identify the codes used in Medicare claims files.
This article provides a link and overview of the document on finder and crosswalk files written by the CMS data distributor, HealthAPT.