Beta MAX

What’s New in August 2012!

• A new report is now available, titled “Should You Use Beta-MAX for Medicaid Research?”  This report compares Beta-MAX data with MAX data for 2009 for 32 states with available data. The report updates the assessment of the reliability of Beta-MAX data from the pilot study on six states released in 2010. We find that overall Beta-MAX data were generally consistent with MAX data on estimates of key enrollee populations, expenditures, and service utilization. One source of some small differences between the two files resulted from Beta-MAX data that included only four quarters of other (OT) claims files.  It is available through links in the “Downloads” section below.

What's New in the Fall of 2011!

• Beta-MAX 2009 documentation is available in the downloads section for 34 states.

Description

Beta-MAX files are early-release MAX files. They are similar to MAX files in structure and purpose, but they may contain less complete data than MAX files. Beta-MAX files are intended to meet the data needs of researchers who are willing to forego some data quality and completeness in order to work with more recent data. In essence, Beta-MAX files are a "rough draft" of the MAX files. Quality and completeness will vary by state and year. In general Beta-MAX files are best used for estimating summary statistics, for research of large populations, and for research of prescription drug claims.

For a brief comparison of MAX and Beta-MAX files, read the document "Beta-MAX or MAX: Which One Is Right For Your Research?"

The Beta-MAX pilot report describes the uses and limitations of the Beta-MAX files in greater detail.

For more information about a specific Beta-MAX file, consult the production specifications and validation tables for the data period of interest.

General Information

Beta-MAX documentation is provided by year in the download files listed at the bottom of this page. The documentation include these files:

1) SAS Load Statements - For users of the Statistical Analysis System (SAS), we included SAS load statements for each Beta-MAX file.

2) Data Dictionaries - Beta-MAX data dictionaries are available for the Inpatient Hospital (IP), Long-Term Care (LT), Other Services (OT), Prescription Drug (RX), and Person Summary (PS) files. Because the file layout and content can change from year to year, new data dictionaries are prepared for each Beta-MAX year.

3) Validation Tables - The Beta-MAX validation tables provide more than 1,500 statistics and frequencies, and compare the Beta-MAX file to the corresponding MAX file from the previous year. When another year of MAX data is available, the data will be added to the tables. For example, the 2009 Beta-MAX Validation tables provide a comparison to 2008 MAX and, when available, to 2009 MAX. The tables can help researchers determine whether a state's Beta-MAX file is suitable for their study population.

4) Production Specifications - The Beta-MAX production specifications describe the specifications for each state's files, including the number of MSIS quarters used during production. The document also provides details for any external cross-reference files (such as those used to update temporary IDs) that were used during Beta-MAX production.