CMS: Vital Status for Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results

National Cancer Institute, Frederick MD

Investigators

Abstract

The Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program is the premier source for cancer statistics in the United States. The program is comprised in part of 18 registries, which collect information on incidence, prevalence and survival from specific geographic areas representing approximately 34 percent of the US population and compiles reports on all of these plus cancer mortality for the entire country. Under this agreement, NIH will reimburse CMS? costs in producing data requested by the SEER registries on an annual basis. Such data requests will include personal identifiers for cancer patients in their databases for whom there is no death indicator. These files will be linked to CMS files, and CMS will produce vital status information for matched individuals. An encrypted data file containing this information will be sent written to a CD and sent via mail through the Enterprise Privacy Policy Engine (EPPE) back to each registry, and used to update the registry?s database with this vital status information.