CMS Home Health Standard Analytical File

RPC knows that data collection and working with large data sets can be a challenge, and has created the Health Data Store to serve as a continuously updated repository of health care data. The Health Data Store can provide you with customizable data, ranging from large nation-wide data sets to smaller and more pointed reports or health care snapshots. Our experience working with CMS Standard Analytical File (SAF) allows us to query and package the data with confidence. We can also incorporate information from several different data sets to create in-depth, longitudinal analysis of the health care markets you are interested in. Please do not hesitate to contact us to discuss how the Health Data Store can help you with your information needs.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) collects data from all home health agencies (HHAs) who provide services to Medicare beneficiaries on an ongoing basis through its fiscal intermediaries, and compiles the data for each calendar year.  One of the resulting datasets, the Standard Analytical File, is organized at the claim level and includes basic information about the beneficiary and services performed for the beneficiary's claim. The Health Data Store has created a Data Dictionary which lists all of the file's data elements. CMS updates this file annually, and the Health Data Store has the most recent update and historical data

Some useful data elements include:

• Beneficiary's state and county of residence
• Home health provider for the claim
• Beneficiary's race
• Beneficiary's sex
• Beneficiary's age group
• ICD-9-CM principle diagnosis code
• Total home visit count (for the claim)
• Claim charge amount
• Claim payment amount
• Patient's discharge status
• Disproportionate share payment amounts

RPC has access to home health SAF data from 2008 to 2009, the most recently released year.

Reporting Home Health Agencies
All home health agencies seeking Medicare reimbursement for HHA claims must submit SAF data to CMS. In 2009 there were more than 9,000 reporting home health agencies.

Data Applications
We can provide custom reports, graphs and maps using this data file and combining it with other health care utilization files.

The tabulations and analysis RPC offers based on CMS SAF data has many potential uses for healthcare planners, financial analysts, and healthcare provider executives. RPC offers custom reports using the CMS SAF data, and our consultants are happy to talk to you about how we can use the file to best meet your needs. A sample of the kinds of healthcare and financial data that can be gathered from the file are included below.

• Analysis of the Medicare populations' demographic characteristics
• Provider or geographic area demographic analysis
• Historical case mix analysis by demographic characteristics
• Comparative analysis of charges by providers and procedural codes
• Historical analysis of charges by providers or geographies
• Comparison of Medicare payment amounts by diagnosis codes, procedure codes or home health agency
• Historical analysis of a home health agency's disproportionate share payments
• Historical and comparative cost to charge ratios

Data Use Restrictions
CMS does not allow any data to be distributed that may make it possible for an individual beneficiary to be identified. To that end, no tabulations using the SAF data that include fewer than 11 beneficiaries may be produced from the data.