SEER-MHOS: A New Federal Collaboration on Cancer Outcomes Research

In this issue of the Health Care Financ­ ing Review, we focus on the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of cancer survi­ vors who are enrolled in Medicare man­ aged care (MMC). Over the past few years, NCI and CMS have been collaborat­ ing on the creation of a surveillance data set that links data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) cancer registry program with the enrolleereported health status information from the Medicare Health Outcomes Survey (MHOS) program. The aim is to develop a data system that will enable both orga­ nizations to sponsor research programs to improve our understanding of the HRQOL of older cancer survivors, and to inform health policy on opportunities for managed care organizations to improve the health of Medicare enrollees.