From CMS…

 

 

Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) - Respondent Care Website Validation

 

 

The Medicare Current Benefits Survey (MCBS) adds about 12,000 beneficiaries to the sample each year.  Most are selected in May/June, and 1-800-MEDICARE is notified at that time with a list of new beneficiaries who may be contacted this summer, for this year’s MCBS panel.  The MCBS beneficiaries will be notified via letter by mid-July.  The goal is to initiate interviews by mid-August.  The next MCBS sample update to 1-800-MEDICARE will be in August and then October of this year.

 

This is a reminder to SHIPs what to do if you hear from a beneficiary who says they have received a letter from or been approached by someone working with NORC on the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MBCS).   NORC at the University of Chicago, a respected social science research organization, is  contracted by CMS to conduct the survey. A professional interviewer may contact selected beneficiaries.

 

You may recall from previous reminders that this survey is a continuous, in-person, longitudinal survey of a representative national sample of the Medicare population, covering the population of beneficiaries in the US, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.  The survey is managed by the CMS Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics (OEDA).  It has been carried out continuously for more than 25 years, encompassing more than one million interviews. The MCBS is designed to aid CMS in administering, monitoring, and evaluating Medicare programs, is the leading source of information on Medicare and its impact on beneficiaries, and provides important information on Medicare beneficiaries that is not available in CMS’ administrative data.

 

All of the OMB and CMS guidelines regarding contacting of beneficiaries for the survey are followed.  This is not a marketing nor a quality assessment survey of providers. Our initial outreach is by mail; if we have a telephone number we also call; and we  show up at the door to introduce the survey to the beneficiary and make appointments to interview them.

 

If a MCBS survey participant (beneficiary) questions the survey or an interviewer, they can be referred to 1-800-MEDICARE as all of the selected beneficiaries are in the 1-800-MEDICARE system.  By calling 1-800-MEDICARE they will know they were specially selected.   Additionally, the MCBS letter is also on the “mail you may receive from Medicare” website..

 

Additional information can be found by clicking the links below:

 

• Respondent page:  https://mcbs.norc.org/
• Our survey page is located here:

https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Research/MCBS/index.html?redirect=/mcbs

• Our “mail you get from Medicare page” is here:

https://www.medicare.gov/forms-help-and-resources/mail-about-medicare/medicare-current-beneficiary-survey-mcbs-selection-letter.html

 

 

 

What’s New?

 

Our contractor for the MCBS has launched a respondent care page where individuals contacted by an interviewer can verify the validity of the study and interviewer.  Additionally, if they contact any of the CMS Regional Offices or  1-800-MEDICARE, the staff can assist the beneficiary/respondent if they have the interviewer ID number and interviewer’s last name.

 

If the beneficiary has the interviewer ID# from the interviewer’s badge as well as their last name, they can look up a copy of the interviewer’s badge and verify they are in the study.

 

Clicking on the survey link below will take an individual directly to our study page at NORC and additionally to our CMS website:

 

http://www.norc.org/WorkingWithNORC/Pages/survey-participants.aspx

 

 

We hope this tool will be of help to those assisting beneficiaries who are contacted by our MCBS interviewers.  Thank You.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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