The Acute Hospital Care at Home (AHCAH) initiative, launched in November 2020 in response to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE), allows Medicare-certified hospitals to treat patients with inpatient-level care at home. Data contained within the AHCAH data set was collected by CMS directly from individual hospitals on either a weekly or monthly basis depending on their participation tier, which is based on the level of experience the facility has with providing hospital at-home services.
The AHCAH data file set contains two files, a Hospital file and a Patient file, both of which are provided as a set with an approved research request and signed data use agreement. The Patient file contains a record for each AHCAH admission for the patient and includes other beneficiary-specific data such as the beneficiary’s program eligibility status (Medicare, Medicaid, Dual) and the state Medicaid identifier, if applicable. The file also contains the facility submission date for the data represented in the file record. The submission date represents the data submitted by the facility for the previous month.
The AHCAH file set is organized by release, and each release contains two files (a hospital and a patient file). Researchers should request files by release, as opposed to individual years or months.
There have been two AHCAH releases to date:
- First release data submission period: November 2020 - March 2023 (29 months)
- Second release data submission period: April 2023 - September 2025 (30 months)
What does this file include? (variable highlights)
- CCW Beneficiary Identifier
- Beneficiary Program Identifier (Medicare, Medicaid, Dual)
- Admission Date for In-Home Care Episode
- Beneficiary State Medicaid Identifier
- CMS Certifications Number (CCN), also known as the Facility Identifier
- Facility Waiver Participation Tier (based on the level of experience the facility has with providing hospital at-home services)
- Facility Waiver Submission Identifier
- Data Submission Date
- Facility Location Information
Special Considerations
- AHCAH data may need to be requested in conjunction with Part A claims, beneficiary demographic and eligibility data to fully understand the information in the AHCAH dataset.
