Oral

A new source of Medicare data is now available from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which links Medicare health services and assessment data across the continuum of care. The Chronic Condition Data Warehouse (CCW) contains deidentified beneficiary enrollment, institutional and noninstitutional claims, and assessment data linked across provider settings for services provided in 1999 through current (5% random sample of Medicare beneficiaries for 1999-2004, and 100% Medicare beneficiaries for 2005 forward). The link key is a unique, unidentifiable beneficiary key designed to create a patient-centric view of enrollment and service utilization. The CCW was developed in response to Section 723 of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA), which presented a plan to “improve the quality of care and reduce the cost of care for chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries.” CMS contracted with the Iowa Foundation for Medical Care (IFMC) to design, implement, and support this extensive patient-level continuum of care database. The CCW was launched in June 2006 and continues to be enhanced with new features and data sources. While all claims and assessment data are available from the CCW, twenty-one chronic conditions have been predefined for ease of timely data extraction and delivery (see www.ccwdata.org for details). Researchers may also define custom cohorts or submit finder files to IFMC for data extraction. The presentation will begin with a general overview of the CCW, content, key features, and request process. Following this, panelists will describe three specific projects making use of this new and unique data resource.

Session Objectives: To understand the content, key features, and data request process for the CMS Chronic Condition Data Warehouse. To learn about CCW statistics and research studies performed using CCW data.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing