MCBS Facility Brochure_English

Flu Shot Rates Among All Medicare
Beneficiaries in the Last Year by Residence
Status, 2015
 edicare beneficiaries residing in a facility are
M
more likely to obtain a flu shot than Medicare
beneficiaries residing in the community.

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• Participating in the MCBS will not impose

additional disclosure record keeping burdens on your
facility. Disclosures under 45 CFR § are explicitly
exempt from the HIPAA disclosure accounting
provisions. See 45 CFR § 164.528 (a) (1) (i)

• The information you provide will be kept private

to the extent permitted by law, as prescribed by the
Privacy Act of 1974. The information you give will
only be used for research and statistical purposes.

MCBS

Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey

• The data you provide could be carefully verified by
computer matching to administrative records under
Public Law 100-503 [The Computer Matching and
Privacy Protection Act].

SOURCE: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,
Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, Survey File, 2015.

What do you need to know about your
rights and privacy?
• Your participation is voluntary, and your

facility’s relationship with programs
administered by CMS will not be affected in any
way by whether or not you choose to participate.

• Your cooperation with the MCBS will not

violate the HIPAA privacy regulations. Under
the privacy standards, your facility does not
need an individual’s authorization to disclose
their protected health information to a health
plan, such as the Medicare program, when the
information is being disclosed for health care
operations activities of the entity that receives
the information, if both your facility and the
Medicare program has or had a relationship
with the individual whose protected health
information is being requested and the protected
information pertains to such relationship. See 45
CFR § 164.506(c) (4).

Any other questions?
Please feel free to contact MCBS staff at NORC at
the University of Chicago at any time.
Call toll-free at: 1-877-389-3429
Email at: [email protected]
Visit us at: www.mcbs.norc.org

This survey is authorized by section 1875 (42 USC
139511) of the Social Security Act and is conducted by
NORC at the University of Chicago for the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services.

A resident in your facility has been selected to
take part in an important study called the
Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS).
Your resident is one of 16,000 people
scientifically selected at random to represent the
Medicare experiences of other Medicare
beneficiaries all over the United States. Every
year, approximately 1,000 facility administrators
are interviewed on behalf of their residents,
providing invaluable data about how Medicare
affects beneficiaries who require long-term care.

What is the Medicare Current Beneficiary
Survey?

provide will be kept private to the extent permitted
by law, as prescribed by the Privacy Act of 1974.

Medicare Beneficiaries with Heart
Disease by Residence Status, 2015

The MCBS has been conducted since 1991 and is a
study to learn more about people who use
Medicare. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS), part of the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, sponsors this survey
in order to gain valuable information about how
Medicare affects the people it serves. The
information we collect about health and health
care costs helps CMS and researchers learn more
about Medicare beneficiaries and their health care
experiences.

Your participation is voluntary, and your facility’s
relationship with programs administered by CMS
will not be affected in any way by whether or not
you choose to participate.

Medicare Beneficiaries with Heart Disease by
Residence Status, 2015

Why should my facility participate?

What does this mean for my facility?

• To help us understand how Medicare affects a

Although most interviews for the MCBS occur in
the community, we also collect data on individuals
who reside in long-term care facilities. Over the
course of the study, approximately 7% of the
MCBS sample resides in facilities at any given
time. By conducting both community and facility
interviews, the MCBS can collect data from
beneficiaries regardless of their location and
thereby maintain a continuous record of their
health care costs and usage.
The interview focuses on the utilization and costs
of the health care being received by your resident,
along with a small section describing the
characteristics of your facility. Much of the
information is abstracted directly from the
resident’s chart and will only require a limited
amount of your staff’s time.
We collect data three times per year, so if the
selected beneficiary remains in your facility over
an extended period of time, we may contact you
for subsequent interviews. For interviews in
facilities, a specific facility questionnaire is
administered to caregivers and facility accounting
staff who are the most knowledgeable about the
individual. No residents of your facility will be
contacted directly. All of the information you

 edicare beneficiaries living in the community
M
have higher rates of heart disease compared to
those living in a facility.

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The information you provide on behalf of your
facility and residents cannot be replaced by any
other data source in the country. This study is the
only source of in-depth health care cost and use,
which are used to accomplish the following:
beneficiary’s daily life, and what problems they
might be experiencing with it.

• To help increase Medicare coverage and

efficiency for beneficiaries, both now and in the
future.

• To provide legislators and policy makers with

more information to create effective laws and
regulations for people enrolled in Medicare. In
fact, the Part D prescription drug benefit was
created in part based on findings from the MCBS.

• To improve the quality of care Medicare
beneficiaries receive.

• To create reports using this data to describe key
factors about how people use Medicare.

SOURCE: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,
Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, Survey File, 2015.

Medicare Beneficiaries Living in Facilities for
the Full Year by Age, 2015
 alf of Medicare beneficiaries living in
H
facilities are aged 85 years and over. In
addition, 21 percent are 75 to 84 years old, 16
percent are 65 to 75 years old, and 13 percent
are under age 65.

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The results of the MCBS are used to monitor and
make decisions about the Medicare program. In
order to form a complete picture of the Medicare
population and guide effective policy decisions, it
is critically important to collect data about all
Medicare beneficiaries, including individuals in
facilities. Long-term care facilities are especially
important to the study because long-term care
issues are at the forefront of the health policy
agenda.
SOURCE: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,
Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, Survey File, 2015.