Frequently Asked Questions

NAMCS began sampling health centers in 2006 and is the nation’s leading survey on the provision and use of ambulatory medical care services. The NAMCS Health Center Component contains critical data about health centers and the care they provide. These data are obtained from interviews and the electronic health record, or EHR, systems of the participating health centers.

The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) Health Center Component has randomly selected a nationally representative sample of health centers that provide health care services to the public and have an electronic health record, or EHR, system. Eligible health centers include:

• Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs; section 330-funded)
• FQHC Look-alikes (FQHC–LALs; not federally funded)

Currently, Indian Health Service Centers are not eligible for the NAMCS Health Center Component.

Your health center’s participation is vital to the success of NAMCS. When a health center refuses to participate, neither that health center nor other similar health centers are represented in the national description of care provided by health centers. Health centers are randomly chosen to represent not only themselves, but other health centers in the same geographic region. Without participation from health centers, the national description of care being provided will be limited.

No, participation in the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey Health Center Component is completely voluntary. If you choose not to participate, however, health centers like yours and the communities you serve may be underrepresented. Reliable data depend on complete responses from all sampled health centers.

By participating in the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey Health Center Component, your health center will contribute to the national description of health centers. Additionally, your health center can receive a set-up fee of up to $10,000 to help prepare and transmit electronic health record, or EHR, data. The set-up fee will be paid in two installments of up to $5,000 each—one after completion of testing and validation and another upon completion of the annual data submission.

Your health center will receive a welcome packet that includes an invitation letter from the National Center for Health Statistics Director and a list of frequently asked questions. A NAMCS interviewer will contact you by telephone to confirm receipt of the welcome packet and answer any questions you have about the study and your health center’s participation, determine your health center’s eligibility to participate, and identify a health center official who can authorize participation.

Participation requires completion of a 45-minute facility interview (usually by the center director) and designation of a health center staff member who will be responsible for submitting the electronic health record (EHR) data. After initial testing and validation of the EHR data submission process, the health center will transmit patient-level encounter data directly from the health center’s EHR for each calendar year. The health center can participate in NAMCS for up to a 5-year period, or until the health center no longer wishes to participate.

The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey falls under Title 42, United States Code, Section 242K, which allows data collection for health research. Booz Allen Hamilton staff members act as National Center for Health Statistics-designated agents and conduct the survey.

The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey Health Center Component will collect the following information:

• • Health center information—Health center characteristics (e.g., center type and total number of visits) are collected from the facility interview.
  • Patient information—Patient data are collected from the transmission of electronic health records, or EHRs.

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) assures the confidentiality of all survey respondents. Data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) Health Center Component are de-identified before they are released for research and contain no health center or patient identifiable information.

We take your privacy seriously. All information that relates to or describes identifiable characteristics of individuals, a practice, or an establishment (including your health center) is only used for statistical purposes. NCHS staff, contractors, and agents will not disclose or release responses in identifiable form in accordance with section 308(d) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 242m(d)) and the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA) (Title III of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (Pub. L. No. 115-435, 132 Stat. 5529 § 302)). In accordance with CIPSEA, every NCHS employee, contractor, and agent has taken an oath and is subject to imprisonment for up to 5 years, a fine up to $250,000, or both if they willfully disclose ANY patient identifiable information.

For additional information on the confidentiality of the NAMCS Health Center Component data, please go to the National Health Care Survey’s Privacy Protection page.

For questions about how NCHS protects the information health centers provide, please contact:

NCHS Confidentiality Office
Telephone Number: 1–888–642–4159
Email: nchsconfidentiality@cdc.gov

The HIPAA Privacy Rule permits disclosure of protected health information to public health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention without patient authorization. The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Ethics Review Board reviews the content of the surveys to ensure compliance with NCHS practices and procedures. For additional information on the confidentiality of the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey Health Center Component data, please go to the National Health Care Surveys’ Privacy Protection page.

Please call the Ethics Review Board at 1–800–223–8118 with questions about this survey.

Data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey Health Center Component are strictly used to describe the use of health center services, conditions treated, and diagnostic and therapeutic services rendered, including medications prescribed. Data are used by public health policy makers, health service researchers, medical schools, epidemiologists, and the media to describe and understand the care received at health centers. Data are disseminated as public health reports, journal articles, and microdata files.

Edited data files are released to the public through the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) website.

The National Center for Health Statistics publishes a number of web tables, reports, and fact sheets using NAMCS data.

If you have any questions or comments related to participation, please contact:

Ambulatory and Hospital Care Statistics Branch
National Center for Health Statistics
3311 Toledo Road
Hyattsville, MD 20782
Phone: 1–800–307–0134
Email: namcshealthcenters@cdc.gov

If you have questions about the survey unrelated to participation, please contact:

Ambulatory and Hospital Care Statistics Branch
National Center for Health Statistics
3311 Toledo Road
Hyattsville, MD 20782
Phone: 1–301–458–4600
Contact CDC-INFO