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Abstract:
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The Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) is a continuous, multipurpose survey of a nationally representative sample of the Medicare population, conducted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) through a contract with NORC at the University of Chicago. A new panel of survey participants is recruited from current Medicare enrollees each fall. The task of locating, contacting, and interviewing new panel members is an important challenge for any survey. For the MCBS, these activities are particularly challenging because the elderly population is more likely to be found in health care institutions such as hospitals and short- and long-term care facilities. Also for those persons in poor health or facing mobility or cognitive challenges, participation in a four year survey may be an activity they are unwilling to undertake. In this analysis, we use administrative data from the Master Beneficiary Summary Files (MBSF) and Minimum Data Set (MDS), commercially available data for address and telephone matching, and MCBS case management data for panels entering in 2015 and 2016. We assess the value of the administrative and commercial data in predicting the location of respondents and the likelihood of completing an interview.
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