Administrative Requirements for Section 6071 of the DRA (CMS-10249)

Mathematica Policy Research

OVERVIEW AND FILE LAYOUT FOR QUARTERLY MFP FINDERS FILE
Overview
The MFP Finders file will allow Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (MPR), the national
program evaluator, to track enrollment patterns in your program and identify and extract
Medicaid claims records from the Medicaid Statistical Information System (MSIS) for each MFP
demonstration participant. For those participants dually eligible for Medicaid and Medicare,
MPR will also use the information in the monthly finders file to identify and extract Medicare
claims records. MPR will use Medicaid and Medicare claims information to build the core of the
MFP minimum dataset (MFP-MDS), the primary data source for the evaluation of the MFP
rebalancing demonstration.
File Content
The Quarterly MFP Finders file will include one record for each person who participates in
the MFP demonstration during the quarter represented by the data. It will be a cumulative file,
so that the last quarterly file submitted will include one record for each person who ever
participated in the MFP demonstration. Records for former program participants will include
current information about their Medicaid eligibility status.
Tables 1 and 2 present the file layout for the Quarterly MFP Finders file. Table 1 presents
the layout for the header record, which contains file identification information. Table 2 presents
the layout for the individual records in the file. The MSIS identification number, the social
security number (SSN), and the Medicare health insurance claim (HIC) number will be the key
identifiers MPR will use to identify and extract each participant’s Medicaid claims records, and
their Medicare claims records if they are dually eligible for Medicaid and Medicare. MPR will
use gender, date of birth, and the monthly maintenance assistance and basis of eligibility codes,
restricted benefits flag, and dual eligible code to verify the matches between the finders file and
MSIS claims records.
Values for almost all data elements can be found in the Medicaid Statistical Information
System (MSIS) Tape Specifications and Data Dictionary, Release 3 located at
http://www.cms.gov/MSIS/. The values for those data elements that do not appear in this
reference are in the footnotes to these tables.
Submission Process
Each grantee will submit this file 45 days after the end of each federal fiscal quarter
beginning with the first quarter of program implementation.
Quarterly files are due February 15, May 15, August 15, and November 15 of each year. If
your state submits regular MSIS eligibility records on a delayed schedule, then you will need to
develop an approach to reporting the Quarterly MFP Finders file that is separate from your
reporting of regular MSIS eligibility records.
Each quarterly file will be sent by the Gentran system. Instructions for the submission of
files are posted on the MFP Resource Center (http://www.mfp-tac.com/).
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Last Revised on October 2, 2008

Mathematica Policy Research

Table 1. Proposed File Layout for Header Record in the Quarterly Money Follows the Person (MFP)
Finders File
Field Name
File-Name
File-Status-Indicator
Filler
State-Abbreviation
Date-File-Created
Start-of-Time-Period
End-of-Time-Period
SSN-Indicator
Filler

Type

Type of Field

Length

Header
Header
Header
Header
Header
Header
Header
Header
Header

Alphanumeric
Alphanumeric
Alphanumeric
Alphanumeric
Numeric
Numeric
Numeric
Numeric
Alphanumeric

8
1
2
2
8
8
8
1
86

Source:

Medicaid Statistical Information System (MSIS) Tape Specifications and Data Dictionary,
Release 3.

Note:

The first data record of each MFP Finder file will be a header record, which will contain file
identification information required for accurate validation of the file. This table summarizes the
fields in the header file record in the order in which fields will be processed. Every header
record field must contain valid data.

File-Name = guid.NONE.MFP.Q.Gxx.FINDRMFP.z
guid = the Gentran user identification number of the person(s) with rights to submit these files
xx = the state’s two letter abbreviation (for example, MO = Missouri).
z = either a T for a test file or a P for a non-test file (production file).
Use all capital letters in the file names as indicated above.
Grantees may submit test files before submitting final files for the evaluation. For test files replace the z
with a T. For files you wish MPR to use in its work replace the z with a P.

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Last Revised on October 2, 2008

Mathematica Policy Research

Table 2. Proposed File Layout for the Quarterly Money Follows the Person (MFP) Finders File
Default Error
Tolerancea

Field Name

Type

Type of Field

Field Length

MSIS-Identification-Number
Date-of-birth
Date-of-death
Sex-code
Social-Security-Number
Type-of-Record
Federal-Fiscal-Year-Quarter
HIC-Number
MSIS-Case-Number
Filler

Root
Root
Root
Root
Root
Root
Root
Root
Root
Root

Alphanumeric
Numeric
Numeric
Alphanumeric
Numeric
Numeric
Numeric
Alphanumeric
Alphanumeric
Alphanumeric

20
8
8
1
9
1
5
12
12
9

0.1%
0.1%
5.0%
2.0%
2.0%
2.0%
0.1%
5.0%
0.1%

Month 1:
Maintenance-Assistance-Status
Basis-of-Eligibilty
Restricted-Benefits-Flag
Dual-Eligible-Code
Filler

Monthly
Monthly
Monthly
Monthly
Monthly

Alphanumeric
Alphanumeric
Numeric
Numeric
Alphanumeric

1
1
1
2
8

0.1%
0.1%
5.0%
2.0%

Month 2:
Maintenance-Assistance-Status
Basis-of-Eligibility
Restricted-Benefits-Flag
Dual-Eligible-Code
Filler

Monthly
Monthly
Monthly
Monthly
Monthly

Alphanumeric
Alphanumeric
Numeric
Numeric
Alphanumeric

1
1
1
2
8

0.1%
0.1%
5.0%
2.0%

Month 3:
Maintenance-Assistance-Status
Basis-of-Eligibility
Restricted-Benefits-Flag
Dual-Eligible-Code
Filler

Monthly
Monthly
Monthly
Monthly
Monthly

Alphanumeric
Alphanumeric
Numeric
Numeric
Alphanumeric

1
1
1
2
8

0.1%
0.1%
5.0%
2.0%

Source:

Medicaid Statistical Information System (MSIS) Tape Specifications and Data Dictionary,
Release 3.

Note:

This table summarizes the fields in the Quarterly MFP Finders File record in the order in
which they physically occur in each record. Files whose values remain fixed for an entire
quarter are referred to as “root” fields; fields that vary monthly are listed separately for each
month.

a

The error tolerance describes, for each field, the maximum allowable percentage of records submitted
that may have missing, unknown, or invalid codes.

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Last Revised on October 2, 2008