The Internet is host to many different options when looking for information quickly, and one of those options is health data.
The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) has several public-use files that can be helpful for looking into Medicare or useful supplements to other health care articles.
There is a catalogue of all public data Medicare provides available for downloading at www.hcfa.gov. The catalogue includes information on the different types of data available, pricing and how the data is available.
Several of the datasets would be a great tool for the general public and reporters alike to compare service, statistics and overall operations of Medicare. Of course, you can't write a story on data alone, but some Web sites can be a great starting point and can be used as tipsheets to prepare for interviews.
Some Web sites can be a great starting point and can be used as tipsheets to prepare for interviews.
Some of the HCFA data includes information about providers, cost limits and payment rates. The data can be accessed at www.hcfa.gov/stats/pufiles.htm. Some of the provider data includes the End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Renal Provider File, which contains information about Medicare-approved providers who supply kidney dialysis and/or kidney transplant services. The data includes the location of the providers and the range of renal services available at those providers.
HCFA also offers the (ESRD) Renal Facility Survey. This data is collected annually by HCFA from all facilities certified to provide Medicare-covered renal dialysis and transplantation. The survey includes the entire U.S. and lists the facilities by zip code. Each record contains information about the facility and the number of patients that have been treated, the number of dialysis treatments provided and the number kidney transplants performed. The data includes services to both Medicare and non-Medicare patients.
The Medicare home page at www.medicare.gov provides a lookup function that will compare nursing homes. It is possible to search for a specific Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing home in the U.S. You can compare nursing homes in an area or find information on a specific one.
The database contains information like the percent of residents with behavioral symptoms and other information about the specific nursing home. There is also an option of comparing it to the average of residents with behavioral symptoms in the U.S. and in the state where the nursing home is located.
This look-up page also lets you view recent inspection results, with a column that measures the level of harm the deficiency could have caused. This table breaks it down into categories such as: mistreatment deficiencies, quality care deficiencies and resident assessment deficiencies.
The future
HCFA has implemented new regulations for all home healthcare agencies. The agencies will have to obtain information from all adult, non-maternity patients and submit the data to HCFA. Home-health agencies use a standard core assessment dataset, the Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS). OASIS contains reports on all home-health agency patients, and HCFA uses it to monitor home healthcare quality and to determine payments for individual patients.
HCFA is still debating whether to release the data to the public. It would offer valuable information on how home-health agencies measure up. This data would be a great tool to compare service and statistics. The agencies, however, are also required to ensure the privacy of many pieces of information kept within this data, so many of the fields will be redacted to ensure the anonymity of the patients.
Devon Hammes can be reached by e-mail at devon@ire.org