In a long-term care facility, data are collected using a version of the questionnaire appropriate for the setting. In recent rounds, data have been collected from approximately 15,000 to 19,000 beneficiaries, with the peaks occurring in fall rounds due to the annual and HMO samples. Roughly 90 percent of the sample is made up of persons who live in the community with the remaining persons living in long-term care facilities. Interview strategies and survey instruments used to collect data are described below. MCBS is a longitudinal panel survey, with sample persons interviewed three times a year over 4 years to form a continuous profile of their health care experience.
All interviews are face to face.
CAPI programs automatically guide interviewers through questions, records answers, and compares beneficiary responses to edit specifications for ranges and consistency with other responses. It guides the interviewer through complex skip patterns and inserts follow-up questions where key data are missing from the previous round. When the interview is completed, CAPI allows the interviewer to transmit the data by telephone to the home office computer. The interviews yield a time series of data on utilization of health services, medical care expenditures, health status and functioning, and beneficiary information, such as income, assets, living arrangement, family assistance, and quality of life. To improve the accuracy of the data, respondents are requested to record medical events on calendars provided by the interviewer, and they are also asked to save Explanation of Benefit forms from Medicare, as well as receipts and statements from private health insurers.