There are a large number of people and records per person in the SEER-Medicare data. Given the vast amount of data, the term SEER-Medicare data actually refers to a series of files. One file includes SEER data. The remaining files are the Medicare files for specific types of service, e.g. hospital, physician, outpatient, etc.There are two cohorts of people included in the SEER-Medicare data -- persons with cancer and a random sample of Medicare beneficiaries who do not have cancer. The "non-cancer" group is drawn from a random 5 percent sample of Medicare beneficiaries residing in the SEER areas.
The SEER-Medicare data have great potential utility for a variety of analyses.
- Overview of the SEER-Medicare Data: Content, Research Applications, and Generalizability to the US Elderly Population;
- Use of the SEER-Medicare Data to Measure:
- Patient Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics;
- Comorbidity;
- Breast, Colorectal, and Prostate Cancer Screening;
- Cancer Surgery;
- Radiation Therapy (includes codes to identify radiation therapy);
- Chemotherapy Use (includes codes to identify chemotherapy);
- Complications of Cancer Treatment;
- Surveillance After Cancer Treatment;
- Cancer Relapse;
- Physician Characteristics;
- Hospital Characteristics;
- Health Care Costs Related to Cancer Treatment.
Source: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER), Medicare
Time frame: (as of June, 2010) The current SEER-Medicare linkage includes all Medicare eligible persons appearing in the SEER data through 2005 and their Medicare claims through 2007.
Available at: http://healthservices.cancer.gov/seermedicare/
- The SEER-Medicare Data Files
- SEER Program & Data
- Medicare Enrollment & Claims Data
- Medicare is the federally funded program that provides health insurance for the elderly, persons with end-stage renal disease, and some disabled. For persons age 65 and over, 97 percent are eligible for Medicare. Almost all Medicare beneficiaries have Part A coverage that includes hospital, skilled-nursing facility, hospice and some home health care. 96 percent of elderly Part A beneficiaries choose to pay a monthly premium to enroll in Part B of Medicare that covers physician and outpatient services. While some Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in HMOs, most have fee-for-service (FFS) coverage. Information about Medicare eligibility and enrollment is available for all Medicare beneficiaries. Medicare claims (bills) are available only for persons with FFS coverage.
- Summary Table of Available Medicare Data
- Provider Files
- For hospital characteristics, NCI has created a Hospital File that includes information about hospitals that are part of the SEER-Medicare data. Information about these hospitals has been obtained from several sources. Each year, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) requires hospitals that bill to the Medicare and Medicaid program to submit an annual report, the Healthcare Cost Report (HCRIS). In addition, as part of its certification process CMS periodically requires institutions to complete the Provider of Service (POS) survey. NCI has extracted selected variables from the HCRIS and POS files from 1996, 1998, and 2000-2006 to be included in the Hospital File. It should be noted that there are differences between the HCRIS and POS files as to exact time periods and how selected variables are defined. NCI has not attempted to resolve any inconsistencies between files, but is making researchers aware of these differences. Close examination of the data may be needed. In addition to information from CMS, the Hospital File includes information about whether the institution was an NCI designated cancer center as of 2002. There are also variables denoting if the hospital participated in any NCI-sponsored cooperative group trials.
- File Sizes & Distribution
- Number of Cases for Selected Cancers
- HCPCS Tables
- The HCPCS tables were generated for all patients in the PEDSF file as well as breast, prostate, lung and colorectal cancer patients with NCH and Outpatient claims. The PEDSF file includes SEER-linked cases diagnosed from 1973 to 2005, but only SEER cases diagnosed from 2000 to 2005 from the expansion registries: Greater California, New Jersey, Louisiana and Kentucky. These tables should be used as aides to give you an estimate of the utilization of specific medical services or drugs over time. The tables show the number of patients with each HCPCS code by year and were generated for all HCPCS codes as well as just the J-codes.
- Frequency of NDC Codes on Durable Medical Equipment Files
- Potential Funding for SEER-Medicare Analyses
- Obtaining the SEER-Medicare Data
- Overview of the Process for Obtaining the Data
- Instructions & Data Use Agreements
- Instructions for Requesting New Data for Previously Approved Projects
- Proposal Review Process
- Requirements Following Receipt of Data
- Cost of Acquiring SEER-Medicare Data
- Analytic Support for Researchers
- Measurement & Methods
- Identification of Diagnosis & Procedure Codes
- Procedure Codes for SEER-Medicare Analyses
- Cancer Testing Covered by Medicare
- Defining the Date of Diagnosis & Treatment
- Geographic Location of Care
- Method to Calculate Hormone Therapy for Men with Prostate Cancer
- SEER-Medicare Data Limitations
- SEER-Medicare Training
- Resources for More Assistance
- Privacy & Confidentiality Issues
- Encrypted & Restricted Variables
- IRB Approval & HIPAA Regulations
- Laptops & Other Portable Media
No comments:
Post a Comment