The monthly buy-in indicators in the Medicare Master Summary Beneficiary File (MBSF) flag concurrent Medicare and Medicaid enrollment, commonly called “dual eligibility”. It came to my attention that the MBSF indicates an…
CMS creates Research Identifiable Files (RIFs) for Encounters and Part D Events by compiling data sent from various Part C (Medicare Advantage) and Part D plan sponsors.
Meeting an error screen is inevitable for programmers. While there is plenty of information on how to solve your coding and analytic problems, there isn’t as much information on how to prevent them. In this blog post, I’d like to offer an argument for using data dictionaries to prevent basic…
Changes in coverage and claim submission requirements can have significant impact on claims research data. Understanding how upstream policies impact downstream data can protect researchers from over-purchasing data for their project.
Institutional providers, such as inpatient facilities, are required to report clinical trial information through the Claim Value Code and Claim Value Amount variables. However, Claim Value Codes were created to report monetary conditions related to claims. This means that Claim Value Amount is…
Distilling millions of records into meaningful measures requires meticulous attention to detail; from initial specifications to final programming, precision is everything. As an analyst, my reputation rests on the accuracy of my work, and I need to feel…