Death Record Confidence 

Scoring Tool User Guide

April 2024
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Death Record Confidence Scoring Tool

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Latest Revision: April 2024

Overview

The Death Record Confidence Scoring Tool (DRC Scoring Tool) is a product developed by the 

Office of Payment Integrity’s (OPI) Do Not Pay (DNP) to help analytics customers prioritize their 

research efforts, improve their adjudication processes, and make informed decisions regarding 

payment eligibility. Using the DRC Scoring Tool, DNP can identify deceased individuals within a 

dataset more effectively to help customers understand which payments are most at risk of being 

issued to a deceased payee, and which of the records should be prioritized for their review.

The DRC Scoring Tool analyzes death data available to DNP (see the Detailed Description section 

for a list of current DNP data sources). DNP uses this analysis to determine the accuracy of the death 

information. The DRC Scoring Tool converts this information into a confidence score based on the 

likelihood the individual is truly deceased. DNP then uses the confidence score in combination with 

payment information within the customer’s dataset to identify the records that have the greatest 

potential impact for at-risk dollars, helping customers focus their time on researching and 

adjudicating records that have the greatest value.

Benefits of the DRC Scoring Tool:

• Customers gain a better understanding of which individuals within their data are deceased based 

on a confidence score.

• Potentially improper payments to deceased individuals are uncovered and rank-ordered based on 

potential impact to the agency.

• Customers achieve additional assurance in their payment integrity.

• Customers benefit from less external research and increased efficiency in their adjudication 

processes.

Features of the DRC Scoring Tool:

The DRC Scoring Tool provides information to customers in a user-friendly file that helps them 

ingest, prioritize, and act on the insights provided. The file has the following key features:

• Payments and the death record matches are grouped together for each payee, rather than listed as 

individual line items and mixed in with matches against other payees;

• Interactivity to allow users to quickly navigate through the tool and extract information;

• Research priority of each payee based on the likelihood of death, strength of the match, and 

dollars at risk;

• Probability of death and the accuracy of the match (death and match confidence);

• Value of at-risk payments; and

• Date a second death source listed the individual as deceased.
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Detailed Description

The following walkthrough outlines in detail how the DRC Scoring Tool gathers, processes, and 

analyzes death data to produce a confidence score for each death record.

1. Death data are gathered from the following data sources:

Data Source Owner Description

American 

InfoSource (AIS) 

-- Commercial

AIS

Contains obituary and probate information on deceased 

individuals obtained from over 3,000 funeral homes, 

thousands of newspapers, and county-level probate records.

Death Master 

File - Full (DMFFull)

Social Security 

Administration 

(SSA)

Contains records of deaths reported to SSA. The deaths 

reported to SSA come from many sources, including family 

members, funeral homes, financial institutions, postal 

authorities, state information, and other federal agencies.

Department of 

Defense (DOD) 

Death Data –

Public

DOD

Contains information on active-duty U.S. military and 

Reserves regarding confirmed or presumed deaths.

Department of 

State (DOS) 

Death Data –

Public

DOS

Contains records of American Citizens who are deceased or 

presumed deceased while abroad, as reported by U.S. 

embassies or consulates upon its receipt of a foreign death 

certificate or finding of death by a local competent 

authority.

Payments, 

Claims, and 

Enhanced 

Reconciliations 

(PACER) 

Returns and 

Reclamations 

Data

Fiscal Service

Contains records of payments made on behalf of the federal 

government and information on any action taken after a 

payment has been disbursed; the DRC Scoring Tool uses 

records of payments that were returned to the agency or 

reclaimed by the agency due to a death.

Do Not Pay 

(DNP) 

Adjudication 

Data

Do Not Pay

Contains agency adjudication information provided through 

the DNP Portal; the DRC Scoring Tool uses records of 

payments that a user from an agency searched in the portal, 

that returned a match to one of the portal’s death data 

sources (AIS, DMF, DOD, DOS), and that the user 

adjudicated as improper.

Electronic 

Verification of 

Vital Events Fact 

The National 

Association for 

Public Health 

EVVE FOD is a premier source of death certificates. EVVE 

FOD allows users to submit records to be matched against 

death records from state and jurisdiction owned vital record 
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of Death (EVVE

FOD)

Statistics and 

Information System 

(NAPHSIS)

databases nationwide to inquire if a death certificate exists 

for those records.

2. Additional factors are used to further validate death and to inform the death record confidence 

scores for potentially deceased individuals.

3. The data undergo quality checks for the validity of Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), name, 

date of birth (DOB), and address. Invalid data may create an inability to match to DNP data 

sources. TINs, names, dates, and addresses are deemed as valid or invalid according to the 

following standards:

Element Invalid Valid

TIN

Blank, contains text, or does 

not fit the rules provided by 

the Social Security

Administration (SSA)1

Non-blank value, fits SSA 

rules, 1

and only contains numbers

(e.g., “123-45-6789,”

“123456789”)

Name Blank or contains no letters 

(e.g., “”, “1234”)

A sequence of letters (e.g., 

“John A”)

Date of 

Birth

Date of 

Death

Blank (i.e., “”)

For EVVE FOD, a date out 

of range is also invalid (i.e., 

month value is greater than 

12, day value is greater than 

31, or year is greater than 

the current year)

Not blank

For EVVE FOD, in-range

Address Blank (i.e., “”) Not blank

4. Death records associated with a potentially deceased individual are grouped based on how 

similar the information is in one record compared to the other(s). The similarity score is a 

number that represents how similar two death records are. The score is based on an algorithm

that factors in the reliability of the death data source and the similarity of the TINs, names, dates

of birth, and dates of death.

1 The SSA format for SSNs includes the AREA (the first three digits), the GROUP (the middle two digits), and the SERIAL (the 

final four digits). Valid SSNs: 1) cannot have all zeroes for the AREA, GROUP, or SERIAL; 2) cannot have an AREA be 666; 

and 3) cannot have the AREA be between 900 and 999.
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A. TIN similarity is calculated based on how many edits it would take to convert one TIN into 

the other. Similarity of TINs is weighted higher than similarity of the other key fields. The 

below table shows how TIN similarity factors into the similarity score between two records.

TIN Similarity

Similarity (high to low) Examples

Exact match “123-45-6789” and “123-45-6789”

1 digit off “123-45-6789” and “123-45-6788”

2 digits off or 1 transposition “123-45-6789” and “123-45-6777”, 

“123-45-6789” and “123-45-6798”

More than 2 digits off or mor 

than 1 transposition

“123-45-6789” and “123-45-6666”,

“123-45-6789” and “123-54-6798”

B. Full name similarity is calculated using algorithms that compare two strings. The more 

similar the names, the higher the total similarity score.

Full 

name

similarity

Similarity Definition 

(high to low) Similarity Score Examples

Exact 1 “John Smith” and 

“John Smith”

Very similar 0.8 – 1 “John Smith” and 

“Jon Smith”

Similar 0.6 – 0.8 “John Smith” and 

“Jonathan Smyth”

Different > 0.6 “John Smith” and 

“Karen Jones”

C. Date similarity

 Date

 Similarity

Similarity (high to low) Examples

Exact “01-01-2022” and “01-01-2022”

Similar

(less than 35 days apart OR month 

and day match but year is one 

character or one transposition off)

“01-01-2022” and “01-31-2022,”

“12-31-2021” and “01-01-2022,”

“01-01-2022” and “01-01-2021,”

“01-01-2020” and “01-01-2002”

Invalid date “”

Different “01-01-2022” and “08-31-2020”

D. In a similar way, middle name, name suffix, ZIP code, and state also impact the similarity 

score.
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E. If the similarity score of a pair of records meets or exceeds the threshold similarity 

score, they are grouped together. Otherwise, they are considered separate entities.

5. Distinct entities that are similar and as shown above, associated with one TIN are grouped and 

assigned a unique group ID.

6. Statistics are calculated for each potentially deceased individual which could be associated with 

either an ungrouped death record or a group of death records. Attributes including the death 

confidence score, TIN, date of death, and, if found, name, date of birth, and address will appear 

in the data presented in the Tool.

A confidence score (Low, Moderate, High, or Very High) is created for each group based on the 

robustness of the data associated with that deceased payee.

7. These data are then matched to DNP death data sources. Any matches are sent to EVVE FOD 

and returned with the records for which a death certificate was found.

8. After the matching process, the data are imported into an Excel workbook which will become the 

DRC Scoring Tool deliverable.
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Key Columns – Definitions

Payee Tab

Column Name Definition

Priority

The suggested order that these payees should be reviewed in, based 

on death and match confidence, associated payment value, and 

urgency (days until the next anticipated payment disbursal)

Confidence

Based on the estimated likelihood of death (death confidence) and 

how closely the payments matched to a death record (match 

confidence); the death confidence is currently based on the number 

of different death sources the individual is listed on, which particular 

death sources the individual is listed on, and whether there are any 

death-related post-payment returns or reclamations listed for this 

individual; values are either Very High, High, Moderate, or Low

Payee ID

This field is an agency-specific account number that indicates to 

which account or individual each payment is disbursed; this could 

be a Master File Payee number

Payee Name If multiple names are associated with the same payee, this field 

displays the most frequent or most likely to be correct

SSN

The Social Security number of the deceased; if multiple TINs are 

associated with the same payee, this field displays the most frequent 

or most likely to be correct

Death Date Date of death listed on the death record

Total Pmts Total number of payments for this payee that were disbursed after 

the earliest date of death associated with this individual

Total Pmt Amt The total dollar amount of the payment

Payee Acct Nr The payment recipient’s bank account number

Dual Verification Dt The earliest date that a second death source listed this individual as 

deceased

Days Between Pmt 

and Death

The number of days from the date of death this payment was 

disbursed

Report Date The date this current report was run

Death Source List The death source(s) that provided a match to this record

Payee Status (USER INPUT REQUIRED) – Use the pull-down arrow to select 

either “Confirmed Alive” or “Confirmed Deceased”

Action (USER INPUT REQUIRED) – Use the pull-down arrow to select 

either “Halt Payment Series” or “Allow but Monitor”
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Payments Tab

Column Name Definition

Payee ID The Payee Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN); this field is 

associated with PartyName

Payment ID The unique payment identifier within the schedule for associating all 

related records for the payment

ALC The Agency Location Code for the agency or program making this 

payment

Payment Type

The Payment Automation Manager (PAM) payment type for this 

payment, such as Monthly Benefit, Daily Benefit, Vendor, or 

Miscellaneous

Pmt Amt The dollar value of this payment

Pmt Date The date this payment was disbursed

Days Since Death

The number of days between this payment and the most likely death 

date; in other words, the number of days this individual had been 

potentially deceased when this payment was disbursed

SSN

The Social Security number of the deceased; if multiple TINs are 

associated with the same payee, this field displays the most 

frequent or most likely to be correct

Payee Name If multiple names are associated with the same payee, this field 

displays the most frequent or most likely to be correct

Schedule Nr The agency's schedule number for this payment; determines the 

batch of payments that are transferred at the same time

ACH Trace Nr A 15-digit sequence used to identify each ACH payment

Priority

The suggested order that these payees should be reviewed in, based 

on death and match confidence, associated payment value, and 

urgency (days until the next anticipated payment disbursal)
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Summary Tab

Column Name Definition

Distinct Screened 

Payees

The total number of payees that have been screened, regardless of 

how many payments may appear for each payee

Distinct Matched 

Payees

The total number of payees that produced matches to the data 

sources, regardless of how many matches may appear for each 

payee

Payments Associated 

with Matched Payees

The number of payments that are associated with the payees that 

have matches to the data sources

Death Records The number of death records that matched the list of payees

1-Month Snapshot The number of payments that are associated with the payees that 

have matches to the data sources in this reporting time period

Related

The number of payments and dollar amounts that are associated 

with the payees that have matches to the data sources in previous 

time periods post date of death

All The number of payments and dollar amounts that are associated 

with the payees that have matches to the data sources
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Death Record Confidence Scoring Tool Sample Data

The images and detailed descriptions below contain fictitious data.

Upon opening the workbook, you will see four tabs: Treasury CoverSheet, Payee, Payments and 

Monthly Summary. (Note: if you receive recurring reports, your tabs may differ slightly from those 

shown below: instead of a Payee tab, you will a see Matches-Current Month tab and a MatchesRecurring tab.)

Payee Tab

The Payee tab lists rows of payments in order of the highest confidence that the payee is deceased to 

the lowest. Payees with a Confidence Score of Very High, High, or Moderate will be listed first; low 

confidence matches can be added or removed per request to allow attention to be focused on the 

most valuable matches.

IMPORTANT! Please use the last two columns to record your adjudication results after 

conducting your own research, based upon your business rules for payments. Return this 

spreadsheet to DNP with the results of your research.
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A. The Payee Status column is a user-entered field for each payee row.

When you click in a row of the Payee Status column, a pull-down arrow will appear. Use 

the arrow to select either Confirmed Alive or Confirmed Deceased based on your 

determination.

B. The Action column is a user-entered field for each payee row.

When you click in a row of the Action column, a pull-down arrow will appear. Use the 

arrow to select either Halt Payment Series or Allow but Monitor based on your 

determination.

Payments Tab

The Payments tab lists rows of payments to the payees listed on the Payee tab. Multiple payments to 

each payee will be listed on successive rows and given the same priority shown on the Payee tab.
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Summary Tab

The Summary Tab displays a high-level view of the customer data broken out by various categories. 

See the Summary Tab table in the previous section for definitions of the categories shown.