surveillance

Abstract: Claims data are an important source of data for public health surveillance but have not been widely used in the United States because of concern with personally identifiable health information and other issues. We describe the development and availability of a new set of public use files created using de-identified health care claims for fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries, including individuals 65 years and older and individuals with disabilities younger than 65 years, and their application as tools for public health surveillance.

Law Atlas-The Policy Surveillance Portal provides access to a variety of datasets that can be useful when conducting public health law research. Each dataset is accompanied by a protocol and a codebook. The protocols describe the method for creating the datasets allowing both replication and updating. The codebooks describe the variables in a dataset.