SEER-Medicare: Available Files by Year

Note: Given a new agreement between NCI and CMS, starting with the data released in 2020 all Medicare data included in SEER-Medicare will be obtained from CMS’s CCW. As such, in 2020 and moving forward the included Medicare data will only be available starting in 1999. The SEER data included in SEER-Medicare will also be truncated to include cases diagnosed beginning in 1999.

File Name Data available for Cancer Cases (see note) Data Available for Non-Cancer Cases (5% sample)
SEER Cancer Data
Cancer File Cancer diagnosed 1999-20211 N/A
5% Cancer File Cancer diagnosed 1999-20211 N/A
Medicare Enrollment
Master Beneficiary Summary File (MBSF)-Base (A/B/C/D)3 1999-20222
Chronic Conditions Flags 27 conditions 1999-2021
Chronic Conditions Flags 30 conditions 2017-2022
Other Chronic or Potentially Disabling Conditions 2000-2022
Part D Plan Characteristics File -Base, Premium, Cost Sharing Tier, Service Area, Special Needs Plans, Multi-year Crosswalk Files 2007-2022
Medicare Claims and Events Files
Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MEDPAR) 1999-2022
Carrier Claims (NCH) - Base, Line, Demonstration/Innovation Code Files 1999-2022
Outpatient (OUTPAT) - Base, Revenue Center, Condition Code, Occurrence Code, Span Code, Value Code, Demonstration/Innovation Code Files 1999-2022
Home Health Agencies (HHA) - Base, Revenue Center, Condition Code, Occurrence Code, Span Code, Value Code, Demonstration/Innovation Code Files 1999-2022
Hospice - Base, Revenue Center, Condition Code, Occurrence Code, Span Code, Value Code, Demonstration/Innovation Code Files 1999-2022
Durable Medical Equipment (DME) - Base, Line and Demonstration/Innovation Code Files 1999-2022
Part D Event (PDE) - with Drug Characteristics File appended 2007-2022
Formulary File 2010–2022
Prescriber Characteristics and Bridge Files 2007–2022
Pharmacy Characteristics and Bridge Files 2007–2022
Part D Medication Therapy Management File4 2013–2021
Medicare Advantage (MA) Data Files
Inpatient 2015-2021
Skilled Nursing Facility 2015-2021
Carrier 2015-2021
Outpatient 2015-2021
Home Health Agencies (HHA) 2015-2021
Durable Medical Equipment (DME) 2015-2021
Medicare Assessment Files3
Minimum Data Set (MDS) 1999-2022
Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) 1999-2022
Condensed Resources (CoRe) Files4
CoRe Enrollment File Dependent on Cancer File requested above and available Medicare data.
CoRe Comorbidity - Prior to Cancer Diagnosis File
CoRe Comorbidity - Post Cancer Diagnosis File
CoRe Cancer Treatment - Systemic ABFFS File
CoRe Cancer Treatment - Systemic Part D File
CoRe Cancer Treatment - Radiation File
CoRe Cancer Treatment - Surgery File
CoRe Cancer Treatment - Summary File
Housing Assistance Data5
Temporal Alignment File 2006-2020 N/A
Episode File 2006-2020 N/A
Transaction File 2006-2020 N/A
Ancillary Files
Medicare Data on Provider Practice and Specialty (MD-PPAS) 2008-2022
Hospital Characteristics File 1996, 1998, 2000-2022
Mergers and Acquisitions File Through 2022
Census Tract Characteristics File Based on 1990, 2000 Census and 2008-2012 American Community Survey data
Zip Code Characteristics File Based on 1990, 2000 Census and 2008-2012 American Community Survey data
Hospital Referral Regions - Zip code crosswalk6 1995-2019

1: Cancer cases from the expansion registries are diagnosed in 2000 or later.

2: All years of MBSF enrollment information will automatically be provided for the requested cancer cases and, if applicable, for the non-cancer controls.

3: Persons added in LINK2022 and beyond will only have MDS and OASIS data from 2010+.

4: The CoRe Files represent a summarization of the available Medicare enrollment and claims data among persons included in the specified Cancer File (diagnosis) years who met the CoRe cohort inclusion criteria: persons who are 66+ years old at malignant cancer diagnosis in 2000+ and were continuously enrolled in fee-for-service Parts A and B from 12 months prior to cancer diagnosis through at least one month post diagnosis and/or continuously enrolled in Part D from 4 months prior to cancer diagnosis through at least one month post diagnosis. Note: persons diagnosed at autopsy or death certificate were excluded, as are persons who died during the month of diagnosis.

5: Limited to persons who were found in the SEER-Medicare data and in the Department of Housing and Urban Development housing assistance data.

6: Originally created in 2017 to include year’s 1995-2015. Updated in 2020 to include year’s 2016-2017 and in 2022 to include year’s 2018-2019.

Hospital files containing hospital characteristics collected by CMS are available free of charge with NCI approval to those investigators with an approved SEER-Medicare application. See Provider Files for details.

The MDPPAS data provided to requestors will be project specific (e.g., the MDPPAS data will be restricted to include only providers who appear in the claims data for the specified project).

Last Updated: 31 Mar, 2025