CMS is pleased to announce the availability of a new set of Research Identifiable Files (RIFs) for the Acute Hospital Care at Home (AHCAH) initiative. This is the second release of the data, covering the time period from April 2023 through September 2025.
The 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 initiative has been extended by Congress several times since the end of the COVID-19 PHE; the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 further extended waivers and flexibilities associated with the AHCAH initiative until September 30, 2030.
The AHCAH data file set contains two file types, 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 Hospital file contains hospital-specific information, including facility location information, the waiver participation tier, and the submission date for the data represented in the file record. The submission date represents the data submitted by the facility for the previous month or week.
- 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 AHCAH data 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)
For more information about the AHCAH waiver program, please see the AHCAH fact sheet at https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/acute-hospital-care-home-data-release-fact-sheet-0.