QC/MEDPAR File

The Quality of Care/Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (QC/MEDPAR) file contains data from hospital bills of Medicare beneficiaries discharged from Medicare-certified hospitals, including data on beneficiary demographics, medical diagnosis and surgery and utilization of hospital resources. The file contains encrypted health insurance claim numbers to enable an individual's annual inpatient history to be linked and studied as a single entity while concealing the individual's identity. The file has been created to facilitate research on the quality and effectiveness of care provided in the hospital inpatient setting. NOTE: Restricted Data File -- Use of this file in a research project requires prior written permission from the source organization.

 

Source: HCFA

Size: 2 GB / year

Years: 1987 - 1991 (annually, by fiscal year) See SAF files for later years.

Media: Original: 9-track tape, 3480 for 1991; Working: DAT

Format: Original: EBCDIC Fixed length; Working: ASCII Fixed Length

RecordLength: 165

Structure: 1 record per Claim

Complexity: Simple; can be analyzed directly from SAS/SPSS.

Restrictions: Use restricted by HCFA data agreements.