Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results - Medicare Health Outcomes Survey (SEER-MHOS)

National Cancer Institute, Frederick MD

Investigators

Abstract

The National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program includes contracts with cancer registries to report uniform data on all incident cancer cases in their defined geographic areas. The program covers 34% of the U.S. population. In order to improve NCI’s understanding of health-related quality of life and health care quality for elderly cancer patients and survivors, the NCI has been enhancing SEER data with data from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), including the Medicare Health Outcome Study (MHOS) surveys. The Medicare Health Outcomes Survey (MHOS), a survey that assesses health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of Medicare Advantage Organization enrollees representing over 30% of Medicare beneficiaries. MHOS is the first patient-reported outcomes measure used in Medicare managed care. Its goal is to is to gather valid, reliable, and clinically meaningful health status data from the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. The SEER-MHOS data resource is a 10 year, ongoing collaborative effort between NCI and CMS that links SEER data with MHOS surveys and other Medicare data (Medicare Advantage enrollment, Part D drug claims). This unique, publicly accessible data resource offers investigators an opportunity to examine health outcomes and care delivery research questions for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries with cancer and to compare to those without a diagnosis of cancer. The SEER-MHOS linkage is updated on a biennial basis, and NCI is scheduled to complete the next linkage in FY2021.