Purchasing Seats in the CMS Virtual Research Data Center (VRDC)

National Institute On Aging

Investigators

Abstract

CMS data, which includes Medicare, Medicaid, and long-term care data (OASIS and MDS) are currently used by NIH/NIA researchers to conduct many innovative studies in support of the NIH/NIA mission. For example, the impact of Medicare on service utilization and health outcomes, projections of future health care expenditures, and estimates of the burden of Alzheimer?s disease, among others. Currently, applicants budget costs to acquire CMS data in the application, and the NIH/NIA pays grantees through RPG funds (direct and indirect costs) to acquire the data in perpetuity (usually until the end of the grant period). The cost varies from a few thousand dollars (reuse) to more than $100,000, depending on the dollar amount requested. A virtual data access as proposed by CMS can potentially be an efficient and secure method of providing data to a large number of users with a variety of different research needs. Additionally, CMS has the capacity to provide claims data (i.e., 5% and 20% CMS cohort files), which NIA researchers can use for analysis.