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 1999-20191 N/A
5% Cancer File Cancer diagnosed 1999-20191 N/A
Medicare Enrollment
Master Beneficiary Summary File (MBSF)-Base (A/B/C/D)3 1999-20202
Chronic Conditions Flags 27 conditions 1999-2020
Chronic Conditions Flags 30 conditions 2017-2020
Other Chronic or Potentially Disabling Conditions 2000-2020
Part D Plan Characteristics File -Base, Premium, Cost Sharing Tier, Service Area, Special Needs Plans, Multi-year Crosswalk Files 2007-2020
Medicare Claims and Events Files
Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MEDPAR) 1999-2020
Carrier Claims (NCH) - Base, Line, Demonstration/Innovation Code Files 1999-2020
Outpatient (OUTPAT) - Base, Revenue Center, Condition Code, Occurrence Code, Span Code, Value Code, Demonstration/Innovation Code Files 1999-2020
Home Health Agencies (HHA) - Base, Revenue Center, Condition Code, Occurrence Code, Span Code, Value Code, Demonstration/Innovation Code Files 1999-2020
Hospice - Base, Revenue Center, Condition Code, Occurrence Code, Span Code, Value Code, Demonstration/Innovation Code Files 1999-2020
Durable Medical Equipment (DME) - Base, Line and Demonstration/Innovation Code Files 1999-2020
Part D Event (PDE) - with Drug Characteristics File appended 2007-2020
Formulary File 2010–2020
Prescriber Characteristics and Bridge Files 2007–2020
Pharmacy Characteristics and Bridge Files 2007–2020
Part D Medication Therapy Management File4 2013–2020
Medicare Advantage (MA) Data Files
Inpatient 2015-2019
Skilled Nursing Facility 2015-2019
Carrier 2015-2019
Outpatient 2015-2019
Home Health Agencies (HHA) 2015-2019
Durable Medical Equipment (DME) 2015-2019
Medicare Assessment Files5
Minimum Data Set (MDS) 1999-2020
Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) 1999-2020
Condensed Resources (CoRe) Files6
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 Data7
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) 2008-2020
Hospital Characteristics File 1996, 1998, 2000-2022
Mergers and Acquistions File Through 2016
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 crosswalk8 Through 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: Currently there is no 2019 data for non-cancer controls who were added to the Medicare 5% sample in 2019-2020; these data will be added as soon as possible.

4: Currently there is no Part D MTM 2013-2019 data for cancer cases added in the LINK2022 (e.g., new cases diagnosed in 2018-2019); these data will be added as soon as possible.

5: Persons added in LINK2022 (e.g., data made available in late 2022) will only have MDS and OASIS data from 2010+.

6: 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.

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

8: Originally created in 2017 to include years 1995-2015. Updated in 2020 to include years 2016-2017 and in 2022 to include years 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: 26 Feb, 2024