Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS)

The MCBS is an ongoing, multi-purpose, face-to-face survey of a representative sample of the Medicare population. It is sponsored by CMS and operated by the agency's Office of Research, Development, and Information (ORDI). CMS's primary mission is the administration of Medicare (health insurance for the aged and disabled) and assisting the states in administering the Medicaid program (grants to states for medical assistance programs). Aside from collecting information on the financial aspects of the Medicare program, the MCBS also focuses on measuring the effectiveness of CMS' education outreach efforts. Through a series of supplements, the MCBS has monitored just how well CMS is doing with educating the Medicare population about the program and the underutilized benefits that are available, such as the "Welcome to Medicare" one-time physical and a multitude of preventative services. Essentially, these data provide the opportunity to qualify many of the CMS's Strategic Plan objectives and to measure beneficiary information needs. Specifically, the MCBS involves the beneficiaries in defining their health care information needs by aggregating and using data for continuous policy and process improvement and assesses outreach by the Medicare program and general knowledge of the Medicare program (services and health care choices) by the beneficiaries.