Measuring cancer care experiences: Introducing SEER-CAHPS.

Abstract

6595 Background: Care experience ratings are recognized as measures of healthcare quality. Here we introduce a new, public data resource, SEER-CAHPS, which links cancer registry data from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program with Medicare claims and the Medicare Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (MCAHPS) survey. Methods: The SEER-CAHPS resource includes cancer registry data from 1973-2011 (diagnosis, incidence, mortality, and sociodemographic data), Medicare CAHPS survey data from 1998-2013 (sociodemographic, health status, and care experience ratings), and Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) claims data from 2002-2013. The survey includes global ratings of overall care, personal doctor, specialist, health plan, and prescription drug plans, and composite ratings of doctor communication, care coordination, getting needed care, and getting care quickly. Data also contain survey weights to account for the Medicare CAHPS sampling design. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses are possible. Results: Currently, SEER-CAHPS includes 205,339 individuals with a history of cancer documented in SEER (FFS: 26,802 with a survey before cancer diagnosis, and 55,231 with a survey after cancer diagnosis; Medicare Advantage [MA]: 57,227 with a survey before cancer diagnosis and 71,436 with a survey after cancer diagnosis). The data resource also includes 724,965 MCAHPS respondents without cancer in SEER regions (FFS: 282,592; MA: 447,358). The data provide insights on topics including experiences of cancer patients in their last year of life; experiences of cancer survivors; and the associations of guideline-concordant follow-up care with patient experiences among cancer survivors. We will demonstrate project sample-size estimation and present instructions for submitting data access applications. Conclusions: SEER-CAHPS, a new, publicly available resource, provides population-based, cancer-specific data on patient experiences, health outcomes and healthcare utilization.