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Synthetic Data FAQ
This document attempts to answer frequently asked questions regarding synthetic data for the following APIs that provide access to Medicare claims data:
- CMS Blue Button 2.0 (BB2.0).
- Beneficiary Claims Data API (BCDA).
- Data at the Point of Care (DPC).
- Medicare Claims Data to Part D Sponsors API (AB2D).
Please see the Synthetic Data Guide for more information.
How do I access the synthetic data? How is the data useful to my organization? What exactly does the data contain?
See the Synthetic Data Guide.
A new set of synthetic data was released. What will happen to the other types of synthetic data? Is it being replaced?
All previously released sets of synthetic data will persist indefinitely; they are not replaced. New sets of synthetic data will instead provide additional synthetic beneficiaries. Any combination of synthetic data can be used going forward.
See the Release History section of our Guide
The current plan is to release a new set of updating synthetic data quarterly to regularly add new sets of synthetic beneficiaries and claims. This will allow us to generate new data that can take advantage of any data generation quality improvements (and any new fields) over time.
Yes, they are consistent with expected formats and we're working hard to ensure that they are consistent with real records and values, as much as is reasonable.
No, the data only covers some codes for coded values.
Not yet, though the coverage of fields should improve over time. As of August, 2021, the synthetic data includes the following maximum percentages of possible fields (any given record may contain less):
| Field type | Maximum percentage of fields included |
|---|---|
| Beneficiary | 27% |
| Carrier | 79% |
| Durable Medical Equipment (DME) | 84% |
| Home Health Aide (HHA) | 63% |
| Hospice | 66% |
| Inpatient | 83% |
| Outpatient | 75% |
| Part D Events | 93% |
| Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) | 73% |
Do the data types for fields in the synthetic data always match the data types in the production data (string, bool, integer)?
Yes, they should.
Does the size distribution of each EOB in synthetic data generally match the size of production EOBs?
Not necessarily, although improvements are constantly being made to make any new data more prod-like in various ways including distribution of claim types in EOBs.
You can join the Google Groups for any APIs you access and ask there:
- Blue Button 2.0 (BB2.0): https://groups.google.com/g/developer-group-for-cms-blue-button-api
- Beneficiary Claims Data API (BCDA): https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/bc-api
- Data at the Point of Care (DPC): https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/dpc-api
- Medicare Claims Data to Part D Sponsors (AB2D): https://groups.google.com/g/ab2d-api
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