CMS Releases Medicare Advantage Data for First Time

The U.S Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is fulfilling its pledge to release Medicare Advantage (MA) data to researchers to help identify care trends for older adults, reports Modern Healthcare . CMS Administrator Seema Verma said on April 26 that this is the first time the agency has released the data to researchers. The agency has released preliminary Medicare Advantage (MA) encounter data from 2015, and more data is expected to come in from insurers through August; final data reports will follow that. CMS will release data on MA enrollees annually going forward, according to Verma. She added that next year, CMS also expects to make Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program data available, providing researchers with access to data on another 70 million patients. MA enrollment increased from 13 percent of the Medicare population, or 5.3 million individuals, in 2004 to almost 33 percent, or 19 million individuals, in 2017.