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Welcome NAMCS Participants!
Data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey are essential to understanding the patterns of health care in America. We need this information to design the best health care programs and to develop the most effective health policies. -- HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson
The best scientific information is the cornerstone of our efforts to improve health and prevent disease. We depend on the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey for current and comprehensive health data. I urge you to participate in this important study. We value your cooperation. -- Julie L. Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H., Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
What
is the NAMCS?
NAMCS
Participation
Confidentiality
and Privacy
HIPAA
Privacy Rule and NAMCS
Data
Utilization
Professional
Endorsements
Contact
Information
Watch
an Audio-Visual Presentation on the NAMCS
(requires Flash
4 player or
higher) Download
it now!
The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) is the Nation’s foremost study of ambulatory care in physicians’ offices and has been conducted since 1973.
Each year 3,000 physicians are randomly selected to provide data on approximately 30 patient visits over a 1-week period.
These data are widely used by health care researchers, medical schools, policy analysts, congressional staff, the news media, and many others to improve our knowledge of medical practice patterns.
Reliable NAMCS data depend on complete reports from all sampled physicians. Data from all sample cases are needed to ensure that policy decisions are based on the most accurate data possible.
Your participation is important.
Who
is eligible to participate?
Nonfederally
employed physicians (excluding those in the specialties of anesthesiology,
radiology, and pathology) who are classified by the American Medical
Association (AMA) or the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) as
primarily engaged in office-based patient care are randomly chosen to
participate in the NAMCS.
Why
participate?
NAMCS
participation is important because without your participation, neither you
nor other physicians like you can benefit from being represented in the
national description of office-based patient care. You were randomly
chosen to represent not only yourself but also other physicians in your
same geographic region and medical specialty.
What
are the benefits of participating?
By
participating in the NAMCS, you will be able to contribute to the national
description of office-based patient care. Participation will result in
more reliable collection of data and will permit researchers and other
physicians to assess medical and ambulatory risks by using the NAMCS data.
Failure to participate lessens the accuracy of data used by physicians and
other researchers.
If you would like more information on participation, please contact David Woodwell at dwoodwell@cdc.gov or (800)392-2862 or visit our Ambulatory Health Care Data home page.
Confidentiality of
NAMCS data
The
NAMCS is conducted under the authority of Sec. 306 of the Public Health
Service Act (42 USC 242k) which requires NCHS to collect statistics on a
variety of health indicators. Information collected in this survey is used
to study overall patterns of health care use by the population and for
other similar statistical purposes. NCHS has a long history of protecting
the privacy of information that we collect, and Sec. 308(d) of the Public
Health Service Act (42 USC 242m) assures the confidentiality of data
collected in the NAMCS. We strictly observe this confidentiality statute,
which prohibits the release of identifiable information that we obtain
unless we are given consent to do so by the subject.
HIPAA
Privacy Rule and NAMCS
This section contains an overview of the Privacy Rule and how it affects
your NAMCS participation. For more comprehensive information on the
Privacy Rule and the NAMCS, please go to HIPAA Privacy Rule Q’s and
A’s for NAMCS.
The final Privacy Rule has been published as required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Health care providers who transmit financial and administrative health information electronically must comply with the Rule as of April 14, 2003.
The Privacy Rule permits you to make disclosures of protected health information without patient authorization for public health purposes or for research that has been approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB). This survey meets both of these criteria. Additionally, disclosures may be made under a data use agreement with NCHS. If you have questions about your rights as a respondent, you may call the IRB at 1-800-223-8118. The IRB is an independent board that protects the interests of people who take part in studies. Click here to see the IRB approval letter for NAMCS.
We have included all the information you need to be assured that you are allowed to disclose protected health information for the NAMCS in our introductory letter to you, and also here at our website. However, there are several things that you must do to assure compliance with the Rule when participating in the survey. First, the privacy notice that you generally provide to your patients must indicate that patient information may be disclosed for either research or public health purposes. And secondly, you may need to keep a record of the disclosure (which we will provide) that shows that some data from the patient’s medical record were disclosed to CDC for the NAMCS. Of course, if you do not transmit health information electronically (such as claims data), then you are not subject to the Privacy Rule or the requirements described above.
The Privacy Rule applies to data collected for the NAMCS because we are asking you to provide certain information about patients without their authorization. For public health and research purposes, the NAMCS collects information from the patient's medical record such as visit date, birth date, and residential ZIP code. While not directly identifiable, these data are considered protected health information as defined by the Privacy Rule. As described above, the Rule allows you to disclose this information for public health and research purposes.Please be assured that we fully intend to continue our long history of gaining the voluntary participation of providers like you by upholding the highest confidentiality standards and practices.
For additional information on the confidentiality of NAMCS data, please go to NCHS’s Privacy Protection page and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) about the NAMCS.
Your
assurance of privacy
NCHS is legally bound to assure
confidentiality of all responses, including any information that might result in
a physician’s practice or hospital being identified. The data files that
are released for research do not include any provider or patient
identifying information.
The NAMCS does not collect any personally identifiable data about patients such as patient's name or address. The top section of the NAMCS Patient Record form, the survey instrument, contains a detachable section where hospital staff can record the patient's name for reference purposes. This section is detached prior to submission of the forms, and is kept by hospital staff for several weeks, in case it is necessary to retrieve missing information or clarify recorded information. Other information that may permit identification of an individual, a practice, or an establishment will be held confidential, will be used only by persons engaged in and for the purpose of the survey, and will not be disclosed or released to other persons or used for any other purpose without consent of the individual or the establishment in accordance with section 308(d) of the Public Health Service Act (42 USC 242m).
To see a copy of the NAMCS Patient Record form, click here.
How are NAMCS data
used?
NAMCS
data are used to provide statistics that describe the characteristics of
office visits to physicians. These include patient demographic
characteristics, the conditions most often treated, and the diagnostic and
therapeutic services rendered, including medication prescribed. These data
are used by public health policy makers, health services researchers,
medical schools, physician associations, epidemiologists, and the print
and broadcast media to describe and understand the changes that occur in
medical care requirements and practices. The data are disseminated in the
form of public health reports, journal articles, and microdata files.
NAMCS data
in the news
Antibiotic
prescription for children fell by 40 percent over the course of the 1990s,
reversing an upward trend that had fueled the emergence of hard-to-treat,
drug resistant bacteria, researchers reported yesterday. --
Washington Post, June 19, 2002.
In
2000, the last year studied (using the NAMCS), Americans continued a
decade-long trend of making more visits to doctors. -- New York
Times, June 18, 2002.
Sharp
Rise Reported in Multiple Prescriptions: Study Attributes Increase
to Growing Number of Seniors, Aggressive Marketing by Drug
Companies. -- Washington Post, July 18, 2001.
A
survey by the National Center for Health Statistics showed average office
visit times increased to 18.3 minutes in 1998 from 16.3 in 1989. --
Boston Herald, January 18, 2001.
This is truly a national resource. Without it, we would not have any reliable estimates of what happens at all the visits that Americans have with their doctors. -- Jim Rodgers, American Medical Association Vice president for Health Policy.
NAMCS is endorsed by many professional organizations. Here is a list of organizational endorsements:
Academy
of Managed Care Providers
View/download
PDF
136 KB
American
Academy of Dermatology
View/download
PDF
76 KB
American
Academy of Family Physicians
View/download
PDF
57 KB
American
Academy of Neurology
View/download
PDF
149 KB
American
Academy of Ophthalmology
View/download
PDF
66 KB
American
Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons
View/download
PDF
104 KB
American
Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Inc
View/download PDF
92 KB
American
Academy of Pediatrics
View/download
PDF
70 KB
American
Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
View/download
PDF
200 KB
American
College of Cardiology
View/download
PDF
278 KB
American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
View/download
PDF
73 KB
American
College of Physicians – American Society of Internal Medicine
View/download
PDF
79 KB
American
College of Preventive Medicine
View/download
PDF
174 KB
American
College of Surgeons
View/download
PDF
80 KB
American
Osteopathic Association
View/download
PDF
120 KB
American
Psychiatric Association
View/download
PDF
215 KB
American
Society of Plastic Surgeons
View/download
PDF
74 KB
American
Urological Association
View/download
PDF
237 KB
Association
of American Medical College
View/download
PDF
43 KB
If you have any further questions or comments related to participation, please contact David Woodwell at:
National Center for Health Statistics
Ambulatory Care Statistics Branch
3311 Toledo Road, Room 3409
Hyattsville, Maryland 20782
Phone: 800-392-2862
Fax: 301-458-4032
Ambulatory
Health Care Data home page
NAMCS/NHAMCS Home |
NAMCS Participants |
This page last reviewed
July 13, 2004
|
