Restricted-Use Linked NHCS – CMS Medicaid Data

Through its data linkage program, NCHS has been able to expand the analytic utility of the data collected from the National Hospital Care Survey (NHCS) by augmenting it with Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) claims data collected by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS). Linkage of NHCS patient data with T-MSIS enrollment and claims data creates a new data resource that can support research studies focused on a wide range of patient health outcomes and the association of means-tested government insurance programs with health and health outcomes.

Medicaid claims data are available for patient records in the NHCS for which NCHS was able to match with T-MSIS enrollment records. CMS provided NCHS with Medicaid T-MSIS claims data for all successfully matched patient records.

The 2016 NHCS has been linked to T-MSIS claims data for the time period of 2015 through 2017 (Jan. 1, 2015 – Dec. 31, 2017). Descriptions of the methods used for linkage and analytic considerations for linked data can be found in the Linkage of the 2016 National Hospital Care Survey to 2015–2017 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System Claims Data: Matching Methodology and Analytic Considerations

Data Access

Due to confidentiality requirements, the restricted-use 2016 NHCS linked to 2015-2017 CMS Medicaid data are accessible only through the NCHS Research Data Center (RDC) Network. All interested researchers must submit a research proposal to the RDC. Please see the RDC website for instructions on submitting a proposal.

Restricted-Use Linked NHCS – CMS Medicaid Data

Data Access

Data Dictionaries

Additional Resources