U S Department of Health and Human Services www.hhs.gov
  CMS Home > Research, Statistics, Data and Systems > Privacy Protected Data Request: Policies & Procedures > Type of Data: Long Term Care Minimum Data Set (LTCMDS)
Privacy Protected Data Request: Policies & Procedures

Type of Data: Long Term Care Minimum Data Set (LTCMDS)

Is the core set of screening and assessment elements of the Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI). This assessment system provides a comprehensive, accurate, standardized, reproducible assessment of each long term care facility resident's functional capabilities and helps staff to identify health problems.  This assessment is performed on all residents in a Medicare and/or Medicaid-certified long-term care facility.

Additional Requirements for Assessment Data Sets (including the Nursing Home Minimum Data Set (MDS)) Requests

Because of the sensitive nature of Assessment Data Sets and the increased risk to beneficiary privacy, the following additional review criteria will be applied to data requests for Assessment Data Sets including the Nursing Home MDS data:

  1. The researcher must adequately demonstrate in the research protocol that the study could not be conducted without access to and use of the Assessment Data Sets. The case must be made that no other data set(s) can substitute for, or achieve the same results as the specific Assessment Data Sets.
  2. The research design needs to be focused, ensuring the researcher requests the minimum data necessary to conduct the study. The researcher must include a copy of the specific Assessment Data Sets; e.g., the Nursing Home MDS Resident Assessment Instrument) and identify the data elements that are necessary to carry out the study. For example, a study that proposes to analyze the number of falls occurring in a nursing home should only requests those data elements relating to falls, their occurrence, prevention or description of related characteristics.
  3. The proposed hypotheses, and subsequent analyses, must consider the potential limitations of the Assessment Data Set. The researcher must clearly demonstrate that they are proposing an appropriate application of the data. This is particularly important for proposals of innovative applications.
  4. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is committed to reviewing all study results utilizing the Assessment Data Sets and requires the researcher to submit a one-page report summary of the research findings. This summary report is in addition to any manuscripts or statistics submitted to CMS for review.

Completed requests for consideration must be submitted to the Research Data Assistance Center (ResDAC) at resdac@umn.edu or 1-888-973-7322

Downloads
Data Use Agreement [PDF,66KB]

Addendum to Data Use Agreement [PDF, 35KB]
Related Links Inside CMS

There are no Related Links Inside CMS
Related Links Outside CMSExternal Linking Policy

Research Data Assistance Center (ResDAC)

Page Last Modified: 06/12/2006 12:00:00 AM
Help with File Formats and Plug-Ins

Submit Feedback




www4