From this page, users may download the following data sets:

• NCDs/Public Comments for NCAs/CALs
• Local Coverage Articles
• LCDs

If you wish to download this data, please realize that downloading may take some time (as much as 6 hours, depending on the speed of your Internet connection). These databases are updated on a weekly basis.

Hardware and Software Requirements

To use these download files, you need at least the following:

• A Pentium 200MHz or higher.
• Hard drive with 700 megabytes or more of free disk space.
• 32 megabytes or more of RAM (random-access memory).
• Microsoft Access 2000 or later.
• PKUNZIP or WinZip. These files are PKZIP compressed files.

Unzipping a Downloaded Database File

The database that can be downloaded is an Access 2000 database contained within a compressed, or "zipped," file. The database file can be extracted from the compressed file using either the WinZip or PKUNZIP utility. In the former case, open the compressed file using WinZip, select the file with the .MDB extension from the list of files displayed, choose the Extract command from the Actions menu, and then specify the directory where the extracted file is to be saved. In the latter case, open an MS-DOS window, go to the directory where the compressed file is saved, and execute the command.

PKUNZIP "compressed name file" *.MDB

where "compressed name file" is the name of the compressed file saved on your disk drive. This case assumes that the executable PKUNZIP.exe is in a directory in your PATH statement.

The latest version of WinZip can be downloaded from http://www.winzip.com.

The latest version of PKZIP can be downloaded from http://pkware.com.

Limitations of the Databases

Note that some Articles and LCDs may contain attachments. These attachments are not available in the databases. However, they may be accessed by viewing the individual Articles and LCDs using the Medicare Coverage Database website.

Please note that only the most recent version of any NCD, Article or LCD is included in this database; historical versions are not included. To access historical versions, please use the MCD "Date Criteria" search features found on the main Search page.