Health Outcomes Survey (HOS)

The Medicare Health Outcomes Survey (HOS) identifiable data files are comprised of the entire national sample for a given 2-year cohort (including both respondents and non-respondents), and contain all of the HOS survey items. The HOS identifiable data files include Medicare health plan identifiers, as well as several additional variables describing plan characteristics. The identifiable data files contain protected beneficiary-level health information such as date of birth.  These files also contain specific direct person identifiers (i.e. name and health insurance claim number) that are not included in the HOS limited data sets.

All requests for identifiable data must be developed and reviewed with the assistance of the Research Data Assistance Center (ResDAC), who may be contacted at www.resdac.umn.edu or at resdac@umn.edu (also see the link in the Related Links Inside CMS below).  See the link in the Related Links Outside CMS below for direction on how to request HOS identifiable data through ResDAC.

Once your data request has been reviewed by ResDAC, the final request can be sent to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as directed by ResDAC.

General information about the Medicare HOS Program is available from the HOS web section (see the link in Related Links Inside CMS below).