RDA Application (CMS)
Submit this form to apply for a Restricted Data Agreement (RDA) to access HRS linked CMS data through the NIA Data LINKAGE Program (LINKAGE) Enclave. Your research plan must be approved by your institution's IRB before submitting this form.
Note: The NIA Data LINKAGE Program was formerly known as the Medicare and Medicaid Resource Information Center (MedRIC).
The application can not be saved before submitting, so make sure you have the following information and documentation before you begin:
- Project title and research abstract
- A short description of each of the following:
- The HRS Restricted data products and variables you intend to use in your research, including planned data analyses
- For each requested restricted data product, explain why the public data are not adequate for your research purposes
- How the results you plan to export or publish will comply with the requirements of disclosure limitation review
- You must include a statement that you understand that all results obtained as a result of analysis with the restricted data must undergo disclosure review. In addition, if your request includes access to any restricted geographic data products, you must include a statement that you will not propose export of aggregated statistics at a level less than census region division
- If required for your research, a brief description of any external (non-HRS) data to be imported to the LINKAGE enclave, including the name and source of each dataset
- Documentation of Full Board or Expedited IRB review and approval of your research plan, in .pdf format
- If the project team includes members who do not have a formal affiliation with the receiving institution, IRB documentation from every additional represented institution is also required
- Information on the requested CMS-HRS data products:
- Data sets and file years requested
- Data encryption level (standard, geographic, or provider)
- A brief justification of requests for data sets with geographic or provider variables (if requested)
- Information on the study team. Include the following information:
- name
- role on project
- business address and phone number
- institutional email address (Gmail, Yahoo, or other personal email addresses are not allowed)
- current CV, in .pdf format
- indicate if the team member requires access to the data
- If the Principal Investigator is a student, the following are required:
- a letter of support from an advisor
- a faculty advisor must be included as a project team member with data access
- A completed HRS-RDA User Tracking Spreadsheet, in .xlsx format. Researchers may only access the LINKAGE enclave from the United States.
After the application is submitted, all team members will be prompted to create an account on this website and submit the HRS Disclosure Limitation Review Policy Agreement form.
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