Basic Stand Alone (BSA) Medicare Claims Public Use Files (PUFs)

CMS is committed to increasing access to its Medicare claims data through the release of de-identified data files available for public use. These files are available to researchers as free downloads in CSV format. They contain non-identifiable claim-specific information and are within the public domain.

Of paramount importance in the release of Public Use Files is the protection of beneficiary confidentiality. To that end all directly identifiable information has been removed. Moreover, other potentially identifying variables, which might cause identification by themselves or in combination with other variables, have either been removed from the files or their values re-coded. See the general documentation file for each claim type for specific information concerning de-identification and variable values.

Each file has its own documentation describing file layout and variable values, as well as program code for creating SAS datasets. Click on the link in the left menu for the specific PUF to access documentation and download instructions.

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Note: Please read the CMS Data Disclaimer – User Agreement – Public Use Data, which contains important information regarding the use of the data. See the link in the "Downloads" section below.