The purpose of the project is to facilitate the acquisition and linking of data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) to participants of surveys and registries sponsored by NIA and related federal agencies, and to promote the use of these data for research and public policy. The intent is to create an infrastructure that will reduce the expense and time required to obtain, create, and use research files of CMS data for individual projects. The specific project aims include: 1. To work with SB!R participant projects to develop and implement plans to link data from survey respondents or registry participants to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicare services for research and policy analysis. 2. To assist in the preparation of data requests to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, including the collection and validation of respondent Medicare/SSN identifiers for purposes of creating a beneficiary finder file for CMS. 3. To process and clean the raw CMS files and convert them into a format more commonly used in research (e.g., SAS) and to provide these files to project investigators. 4. To construct research databases in consultation with project investigators for potential distribution or use by individual investigators, including the file content, structure and documentation, and methods for maintaining respondent confidentiality. 5. To convene an Advisory Committee to provide guidance to the project, as a whole, and to promotional efforts to encourage data use for research and policy. 6. With the assistance of SBIR participant projects and in consultation with CMS, develop a process for data acquisition by individual researchers compliant with HIPAA and Privacy Act requirements. 7. Collaborate with SBIR participant projects on evaluations of the reliability and validity of the research databases using Medicare data.
