Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Virtual Research Data Center: Secure, Remote Access to Medicare and Medicaid Data

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Virtual Research Data Center (VRDC) is a virtual research environment, within CMS’s Chronic Condition Data Warehouse (CCW), that provides timelier access to Medicare and Medicaid program data in a more efficient and cost effective manner. The CCW one of the largest health services data warehouses in the country, containing 14 years of Medicare and Medicaid administrative claims, assessment, and enrollment data linked by beneficiary across over time and across data types.  This rich data source was made available to support health services research, health policy analysis, program evaluation, and comparative effectiveness research.  Use of the VRDC eliminates the need for acquisition of equipment to store, manage and analyze data, provides secure remote workspace, and greater access to user-friendly data sources and tools.

VRDC users are allocated 500 GB of workspace for data and analysis (some flexibility depending on number of years/files required for research).  There is a set price per year, per seat in the VRDC.  Aggregate results and/or statistical data files are downloaded from the environment via a secure file transfer mechanism.  Finder files, program code and other analytic sources can be uploaded to the user’s environment using the same mechanism.

Researchers may request access to the VRDC with the assistance of the Research Data Assistance Center (ResDAC).  ResDAC assists researchers with the review of materials and answering any questions about the contents of data files, cost, and process.  Requests will be reviewed and approved by CMS Privacy Board.  Once CMS approves the Data Use Agreement, access to the VRDC environment is granted.