The Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) is the most comprehensive and complete survey available on the Medicare population. Since 1991, the MCBS has collected data on Medicare beneficiaries’ social and medical risk factors and the relationship between these factors, healthcare utilization, and health outcomes – at a point in time and over time – directly from beneficiaries. These data, linked with Medicare enrollment data and claims, provide information not otherwise available through administrative data on the Medicare program and can be used to evaluate effectiveness of health care policy and policy interventions.
The MCBS releases two Limited Data Set (LDS) files annually. All research requests for limited access data require a Data Use Agreement (DUA) and can be requested through the process outlined here: Limited Data Set (LDS) Files. The MCBS also releases two Public Use File (PUF) versions of the LDS files. These files, as well as accompanying documentation, are free to download and available on the MCBS PUF page. For additional information on the differences between these types of files, please visit Research Data Assistance Center (ResDAC). Additional documentation, including Questionnaires and Tutorials, is available on the MCBS webpage.
In addition to these data files, the MCBS regularly releases data tables, infographics, data briefs, and chartbooks. See the 'Quick Links' for detailed information on our data products.
MCBS LDS Files
The MCBS Survey File contains over 6 thousand variables on a broad range of topics, including social determinants of health, economic outcomes, medication non-adherence, health insurance coverage and barriers to accessing care. The file is augmented with 5 years of enrollment data and, for beneficiaries enrolled in FFS Medicare, with 5 years of limited FFS claims. The MCBS Survey File (LDS) can be ordered here: Limited Data Set (LDS) Files.
The Cost Supplement provides a comprehensive picture of beneficiaries’ health care use, expenditures, and sources of payment, including those not covered by Medicare. It contains both individual event and summary files and can be linked to the Survey File to conduct analyses on health care cost and utilization. The Cost Supplement File can support a broader range of research and policy analyses on the Medicare population than would be possible using either survey data or administrative claims data alone. The MCBS Cost Supplement File (LDS) can be ordered here: Limited Data Set (LDS) Files.
MCBS PUF Files
The MCBS Survey File PUF provides a publicly available file for researchers, while ensuring the highest degree of protection to the Medicare beneficiaries’ protected health information. The MCBS Survey File PUF contains a subset of variables from the MCBS Survey File LDS for Medicare beneficiaries living in the community only and is available free for download, along with accompanying documentation, on the MCBS PUF page.
The MCBS Cost Supplement PUF provides a publicly available version of the MCBS Cost Supplement LDS for researchers, while ensuring the highest degree of protection to the Medicare beneficiaries’ protected health information. It includes data that links Medicare claims to survey-reported health care events and contains summarized expenditure and source of payment data on all health care services, including those not covered by Medicare. The MCBS Cost Supplement PUF, along with accompanying documentation, is available free for download on the MCBS PUF page.
The MCBS COVID-19 Supplement PUF provides a publicly available MCBS file for researchers interested in the experiences of Medicare beneficiaries during the COVID-19 pandemic. The file provides information not available in the CMS administrative data, while providing the highest degree of protection to the Medicare beneficiaries’ protected health information. The MCBS COVID-19 Supplement PUF, along with accompanying documentation, is available free for download on the MCBS PUF page.
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MCBS Advanced Tutorial on Using Community and Facility Data (PDF)
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MCBS Advanced Tutorial on Weighting and Variance Estimation (PDF)
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MCBS Advanced Tutorial on the COVID-19 Supplemental Data (PDF)
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MCBS Advanced Tutorial on Pooled Cross-Sectional Analysis (PDF)
| Quick Links |
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| Announcements |
| Bibliography |
| Chartbook |
| Data Briefs and Tutorials |
| Data Documentation and Codebooks |
| Data Tables |
| Questionnaires |
The Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey is authorized by section 1875 (42 USC 139511) of the Social Security Act and is conducted by NORC for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The OMB Number for this survey is 0938-0568 and expires 08/31/2025.
If you have questions or feedback regarding use of the MCBS data, please email us at [email protected].
A full list of contributors can be found on https://github.com/CMSgov/mcbs-chartbook/graphs/contributors.
We adhere to the CMS Open Source Policy. If you have any questions, just shoot us an email.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is committed to ensuring the security of the American public by protecting their information from unwarranted disclosure. We want security researchers to feel comfortable reporting vulnerabilities they have discovered so we can fix them and keep our users safe. We developed our disclosure policy to reflect our values and uphold our sense of responsibility to security researchers who share their expertise with us in good faith.
Submit a vulnerability: Unfortunately, we cannot accept secure submissions via email or via GitHub Issues. Please use our website to submit vulnerabilities at https://hhs.responsibledisclosure.com. HHS maintains an acknowledgements page to recognize your efforts on behalf of the American public, but you are also welcome to submit anonymously.
Review the HHS Disclosure Policy and websites in scope: https://www.hhs.gov/vulnerability-disclosure-policy/index.html.
This policy describes what systems and types of research are covered under this policy, how to send us vulnerability reports, and how long we ask security researchers to wait before publicly disclosing vulnerabilities.
If you have other cybersecurity related questions, please contact us at [email protected].
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All contributions to this project will be released under the CC0 dedication. By submitting a pull request or issue, you are agreeing to comply with this waiver of copyright interest.