Data Access Guidelines

The IBM® MarketScan® Commercial Claims and Encounters and Medicare Supplemental Databases

The Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research holds an annually renewable license for the Commercial Claims and Encounters Database for the years 2000 through 2018.

Under our license only faculty, staff, and graduate students on a faculty or staff-directed research project, who are affiliated with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, are permitted to use these data.  Others interested in using Marketscan data should contact IBM Watson Health to negotiate a license.

License fees:

Intramural (UNC) use sponsored by:

  • CTSA (Clinical & Translational Science Awards program)
  • Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research
  • Department of Epidemiology, UNC Gillings School of Global Health
  • Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, School of Pharmacy

Training grants are covered under intramural use.

Pre-negotiated user fees will be assessed for grant-funded projects and dissertations.

Data Storage

All data, including analysis subsets and extracts, must be stored and analyzed on approved secure servers at the Sheps Center. Fees for server access may apply.