Restricted-Use Linked NHCS-CMS Medicare Data
Through its data linkage program, NCHS has been able to expand the analytic utility of the data collected from the National Hospital Care Survey (NHCS) by augmenting it with administrative data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Medicare program. Linkage of NHCS data with the CMS Medicare Data provides the opportunity to conduct a vast array of studies on health care utilization and expenditures among the elderly U.S. population and persons receiving Medicare disability benefits.
Medicare enrollment and claims/encounters data are available for patient records in the NHCS for which NCHS was able to match with Medicare administrative records. CMS provided NCHS with Medicare enrollment and health care claims/encounters data for all successfully matched patient records.
2014 NHCS – 2014/2015 Medicare Enrollment and Summary Data
The 2014 NHCS has been linked to the 2014-2015 CMS Medicare Master Beneficiary Summary File (MBSF). Descriptions of the methods used for linkage and analytic considerations for the 2014 NHCS linkage to the 2014-2015 CMS MBSF can be found in the 2014 NHCS – 2014-2015 CMS MBSF Matching Methodology and Analytic Considerations [PDF – 304 KB]
2016 NHCS – 2016/2017 Medicare Enrollment/Summary, Claims/Encounters, and Assessment Data
The 2016 NHCS has been linked to the 2016-2017 CMS Medicare MBSF, Claims/Encounters, and Assessment data. Descriptions of the methods used for linkage and analytic considerations for the 2016 NHCS linkage to the 2016-2017 CMS data can be found in the 2016 NHCS – 2016-2017 CMS Medicare Enrollment, Claims/Encounters and Assessment Data: Matching Methodology and Analytic Considerations [PDF – 638 KB].
Data Access
Due to confidentiality requirements, the restricted-use linked NHCS-CMS data are accessible only through the NCHS Research Data Center (RDC). All interested researchers must submit a research proposal to the RDC. Please see the RDC web site for instructions on submitting a proposal (RDC website).