CMS has determined that asking a short
series of COVID-19 related questions as a supplement to the
Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey is essential to CMS’ emergency
response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically,
self-reported data from beneficiaries who participate on the MCBS
will provide unique and critical COVID-19 measures that are not
available in CMS administrative data. For example, CMS has provided
valuable aggregate data from Medicare Fee-for-Service claims data,
Medicare Advantage encounter data, and Medicare enrollment
information3. Self-reported data obtained through the MCBS COVID-19
Supplement will provide additional measures that can be provided
only by interviewing Medicare beneficiaries. MCBS respondents, by
definition, are most at risk for underlying conditions that may
lead to more severe COVID-19 complications. Since the MCBS is a
nationally representative sample of all Medicare beneficiaries, CMS
has determined that a MCBS Fall COVID-19 Supplement is a unique
vehicle to further assess and understand the COVID-19 pandemic.
Implementing the MCBS Fall COVID-19 Supplement no later than
October 2020 will allow for data to begin to be released to the
public by December 2020. Because the survey must remain in the
field for multiple weeks to complete data collection, launching the
survey later than the beginning of October is not feasible to
provide data by the end of the year. Data collection for the Fall
COVID-19 Supplement to be administered by phone of all MCBS survey
respondents will begin October 5, 2020 for a 5 week period. Once
data collection is completed, approximately 5 weeks is needed for
data processing, data review, quality control, weighting and
development of preliminary estimates which will be released to the
public by mid-December. This will be followed by data releases in
2021 as part of the MCBS 2019 Survey File Limited Data Set. Access
to disclosure protected data is also planned through a special
stand-alone 2019 MCBS COVID Public Use File in order to provide the
data in the most expeditious manner to data users both internal to
and external to CMS.
With the emergence of
the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., CMS is uniquely positioned to
collect timely and vital information on how the pandemic is
impacting the Medicare population by utilizing the MCBS. The MCBS
is a continuous, multi-purpose survey of a representative national
sample of the Medicare population, including the population of
beneficiaries aged 65 and over and beneficiaries aged 64 and below
with eligible disabilities, residing in the United States (it is
collected under 0938-0568, expiration 08/31/2022). MCBS
beneficiaries, by definition, are most at risk for underlying
conditions that may lead to more severe COVID-19 complications.
This request for emergency clearance approval proposes to add the
Fall COVID-19 Supplement to the MCBS Fall 2020 Round 88 data
collection. By selecting MCBS respondents to participate in the
Fall COVID-19 Supplement, CMS can reduce the burden of the
questionnaire by only needing to ask questions directly related to
the impact of the pandemic. CMS requests that OMB consider
approving the emergency clearance request by August 7, 2020. This
date is based on approximately an 8 week accelerated schedule to
prepare for data collection (2 weeks to finalize case management
and questionnaire programming specifications, 4 weeks for
programming and user acceptance testing, and 2 weeks for final
systems integration testing, during which remote training of
interviewers will also be conducted). These steps must be done
concurrently and 8 weeks is the shortest period of time that will
result in a fully developed and tested instrument. Data collection
for the Fall COVID-19 Supplement to be administered by phone of all
MCBS survey respondents will begin October 5, 2020 for a 5 week
period. Once data collection is completed, approximately 5 weeks is
needed for data processing, data review, quality control, weighting
and development of preliminary estimates which will be released to
the public by mid-December. This will be followed by data releases
in 2021 as part of the MCBS 2019 Survey File Limited Data Set.
Access to disclosure protected data is also planned through a
special stand-alone 2019 MCBS COVID Public Use File in order to
provide the data in the most expeditious manner to data users both
internal to and external to CMS.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Form P-0015A Fall COVID-19 Supplement
Responses to Public Comments.docx
Fall COVID-19 Supplement