MCBS Facility Broc

What do you need to know about your
rights and privacy?
• Participation is voluntary. 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. Authorization is also not needed 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 anytime.
Call toll-free at: 1-844-777-2151
Email at: [email protected]
Visit us at: mcbs.norc.org

• 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.

• The data you provide could be carefully verified

by the computer matching to administrative
records under Public Law 100-503 [The
Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act].
All information will be kept private.

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.
OMB No. 0938-0568 | Expires 8/31/2026

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?
MCBS is a survey designed to help policymakers
understand the needs of people who use Medicare.
MCBS has been conducted since 1991 by the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS),
which oversees Medicare. MCBS informs
policymakers who make decisions about the
Medicare program, providing them with important
insight on Medicare beneficiaries’ experiences
with healthcare.

What does this mean for my facility?
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
provide will be kept private to the extent permitted
by law, as prescribed by the Privacy Act of 1974.
Your participation is voluntary, and your
relationship with programs administered by CMS
will not be affected in any way by whether or not
you participate.

Why should my facility participate?

What do we know about Medicare
because of the participation of facilities
like yours?
Residence Status of Medicare Beneficiaries
by Age, 2020
Nearly half of Medicare beneficiaries residing
in facilities are 85 or older.

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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:

• To help us understand how Medicare affects

people’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.

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.

Selected Reported Chronic Conditions
Among Medicare Beneficiaries by Residence
Status, 2020
66% of beneficiaries residing in a facility have
hypertension, while less than half have heart
disease or diabetes.

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