Tip: Finding Birth Year for Arkansas Medicare beneficiaries

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Arkansas Medicare

Jan 24, 2020

Jan 20, 2023

Replaced reference for MYEAR to BENE_ENROLLMENT_REF_YR. Included in the Sept 2024 data tips email

Calculating beneficiary year of birth (if not provided)

Beneficiary year of birth can be calculated using the fields AGE_AT_END_REF_YR and BENE_ENROLLMENT_REF_YR.   This tip is applicable to state agency data requesters having access to Arkansas Medicare.

AGE_AT_END_REF_YR is defined here (https://www.resdac.org/cms-data/variables/age-beneficiary-end-year):  This is the beneficiary’s age, expressed in years and calculated as of the end of the calendar year, or, for beneficiaries that died during the year, age as of the date of death.

BENE_ENROLLMENT_REF_YR represents the year in which the data was created.  For example, if the beneficiary record was created in 2015, BENE_ENROLLMENT_REF_YR would contain the value 2015.  All values in BENE_ENROLLMENT_REF_YR assume that the month and date is December 31.  In other words, BENE_ENROLLMENT_REF_YR= 2015 can be interpreted as 2015-12-31.

Therefore, to find the beneficiary's year of birth, use the suggested methodology:

When BENE_DEATH_YEAR is null, find the difference between BENE_ENROLLMENT_REF_YR(expanded to include MM = 12 and DD = 31, e.g. BENE_ENROLLMENT_REF_YR = 2015 becomes 2015-12-31) and the value in AGE_AT_END_REF_YR.  The resulting year represents the beneficiary's birth year.  Else use the difference between BENE_DEATH_YEAR and AGE_AT_END_REF_YR.

DOB

Medicare

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