Cost of Acquiring SEER-CAHPS Data

The SEER-CAHPS data files are created by Information Management Services, Inc. (IMS), the information technology contractor for NCI. Outside researchers are asked to reimburse IMS for the cost of producing the data, as listed below. We also offer a cost calculator to estimate the cost of obtaining data for your SEER-CAHPS project.

Try the SEER-CAHPS data cost calculator

1: The SEER-CAHPS cancer survey data file and the cancer data file must be ordered.

The quoted costs are for files containing cancer cases that are newly diagnosed in each year. Other analyses, such as identifying all persons who died of a selected cancer in a year, may require special programming at additional cost. Please note that IMS cannot undertake extensive special programming. Additional cleaning and data modification are the responsibility of the investigator. IMS will begin processing a data request upon receipt of payment. Please note that investigators who request updated data for an existing project after a new data linkage will incur the cost of recreating the entire data set. Completed datasets will be shipped by UPS ground.

All charges will be periodically reviewed to determine whether they are fairly recovering IMS's costs and may be changed without notice.

These estimates are for creating data files for one cancer site, such as lung. Use the charges in the above table to estimate the total cost of your request. The estimated costs for the data files can also be calculatedusing the SEER-CAHPS cost calculator.

If multiple cancer sites are ordered, the cost of the cancer files (and PDPC, MD-PPAS, PDE Formulary, and PDE Prescriber and Pharmacy characteristics) is multiplied depending on the sites requested. You will be charged for one cancer site for each of the following cancers:

• Breast,
• Lung,
• Colorectal, and
• Prostate.

For example: If all four of these cancer sites are requested, the charges in the table are multiplied by 4.

For cancer sites other than Breast, Lung. Colorectal and Prostate, the multipliers are as follows:

• One to two cancer sites: × 1.
• Three to four cancer sites: × 2.
• Five to eight cancer sites: × 3.
• Nine to twelve cancer sites: × 4.
• Thirteen or more cancer sites: × 5.

For requests involving a combination of Breast, Lung, Colorectal, Prostate, plus other site(s), the multipliers are additive. For example: the multiplier for a request including Breast, Lung, Ovary and Uterine cancer is as follows:

Please note that for all files except NCH, Outpatient, and PDE of SEER-linked cases, the data production costs include all calendar years. For example, the cost of MEDPAR data for 2002 – 2018 is $125. The NCH and Outpatient files are large. Therefore, the production costs for these files are for each calendar year. For example, the charge for 2002 – 2018 NCH claims for one cancer site is $1,700.