Hospital inpatient Medicare users (number)
Maryland - Somerset

A count was determined based on the number of Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries who had covered hospital inpatient services.

Description The Chronic Condition Data Warehouse (CCW) is a research database designed to (1) identify areas for improving the quality of care provided to chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries; (2) identify ways to reduce program spending; and (3) make current Medicare data more readily available to researchers studying chronic illness in the Medicare population. The CCW contains fee-for-service institutional and non-institutional claims, enrollment/eligibility, and assessment data from 1999 forward for a random 5% sample of Medicare beneficiaries (100% for 2005 forward). The data are linked by a unique, unidentifiable beneficiary key, which allows researchers to analyze information across the continuum of care.

Description CMS collects and synthesizes Medicare enrollment, spending, and claims data to monitor and evaluate access to and quality of care, trends in utilization, changes in payment policy, and other program-related issues.

MethodologyThe claims and utilization data files contain extensive utilization information at various levels of summarization for a variety of providers and services. There are many types and levels of these files: the National Claims History (NCH) files, the Standard Analytic files (SAFs), Medicare Provider and Analysis Review (MEDPAR) files, Medicare enrollment files, and various other files.