CMS releases 2017 Public Use File for the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS)

Connecting People With Data

CMS releases 2017 Public Use File for the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) The MCBS 2017 public use file (MCBS PUF) provides a publicly available file for researchers interested in the health, health care use, access to and satisfaction with care for Medicare beneficiaries, while providing the highest degree of protection to the Medicare beneficiaries’ protected health information.  With more than 25 years of continuous data collection and the completion of over 1 million interviews, the MCBS is a continuous, in-person, longitudinal survey of a representative national sample of the Medicare population.  As the largest federal health survey of the Medicare population, the MCBS plays an essential role in monitoring and evaluating key aspects of the Medicare program and is a leading source of information on Medicare and its impact on beneficiaries.  The MCBS PUF is prepared from data collected in 2017 from 13,371 community dwelling Medicare beneficiaries representing a population of 54 million and contains standard demographic variables, such as age categories, race/ethnicity and sex, as well as information about health conditions, access to and satisfaction with care, type of insurance coverage, and information on utilization, such as the number of fee-for-service claims per beneficiary for certain health care events.  The 2017 MCBS PUF includes 3 data files with accompanying codebooks. Among the many topic areas in the 2017 MCBS PUF are a series of questions on satisfaction with health care access.  In 2017, most Medicare beneficiaries responded that they were generally satisfied with their access to health care services. The MCBS 2017 PUF is available free for download, along with its accompanying documentation at:  https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Downloadable-Public-Use-Files/MCBS-Public-Use-File/index.html All of the above data assets are also catalogued on Healthdata.gov:  http://www.healthdata.gov/dataset/search The Data Navigator development team welcomes your feedback. Write to us at DataNavigator@cms.hhs.gov.