Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MEDPAR) File

The Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MEDPAR) File contains data from claims for services provided to beneficiaries admitted to Medicare certified inpatient hospitals and skilled nursing facilities (SNF). The accumulation of claims from a beneficiary's date of admission to an inpatient hospital, where the beneficiary has been discharged, or to a skilled nursing facility, where the beneficiary may still be a patient, represents one stay. A stay record may represent one claim or multiple claims. Approximately 95% of inpatient stays and 50% of SNF stays involve a single claim. Prior to 1999, Managed Care Organization (MCO) data was included when fully formatted claims were submitted; about 3% of the no pay bills were for MCO claims. Beginning in 1999, MCO bills were excluded. Beneficiary demographic characteristics, diagnosis and surgery information, and use of hospital or SNF resources are included on the MEDPAR records. In addition, the records contain detailed accommodation and departmental charge data, days of care, and entitlement data.

The MEDPAR File allows researchers to track inpatient history and patterns/outcomes of care over time. Data of death information is appended up to three years after data of discharge. It is useful for research into chronic disease prevalent in the elderly populations such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes and for mortality studies.

Data is available for both fiscal year and calendar year beginning in 1991.  MEDPAR records represent final action claims data in which all adjustments have been resolved. It is formatted as an unpacked file with a length of 788.

Media: DVD
Available: 1991 through 2006

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.

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.