Updated research request forms and data security approval requirement effective 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
There are many different provider variables in the Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) Claims and Encounter data. Researchers are often interested in the performing NPI and/or the facility CCN or organizational NPI, but other variables are sometimes…
To describe the CMS cell size suppression policy and provide examples of common scenarios and possible options.
States that have "Opted-In" to data sharing under the State Research request process are required to submit quarterly logs to CMS.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) seeks to ensure the protection of CMS data disclosed to external organizations for research purposes. To accomplish this, CMS has developed the Data Privacy Safeguard Program (DPSP). The DPSP reflects the CMS priorities to both improve data stewardship and to protect the privacy and security of CMS research identifiable files (RIF) that are made available for conducting important research studies.
To describe the CMS policy that prohibits non-US based researchers from accessing identifiable CMS data (RIF and LDS) and provide examples of common scenarios.
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 and presents examples of acceptable IRB documentation.
The IRB documentation must indicate that there was a review that satisfies the following two requirements:
This article describes the Federal Regulations that govern the release of CMS data for research.