Death Master File

[Gregory Matthews]

The Death Master File is a subset of the Social Security Administration's Numident database file, computerized in 1961,^[3] which contains information about all Social Security numbers issued since 1936. The Death Master File is considered a public document under the Freedom of Information Act, and monthly and weekly updates of the file are sold by the National Technical Information Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce.^[4] Knowing that a patient died is important in many observational clinical studies and is important for medical research.^[5] It is also used by financial and credit firms and government agencies to match records and prevent identity fraud.

The data includes:

• Name (Given name, surname), since 1990s the middle initial
• Date of birth (Year, Month, Day)
• Date of death (Year, Month), since 2000 the day of month
• Social Security number
• Whether death has been verified or a death certificate has been observed.

In 2011, the following information was removed:

• Last ZIP code of the person while alive
• ZIP code to which the lump sum death benefit was sent, if applicable.

NOTE:  While the above is an exact quote, I have made a change in the exact order of the above in order to make it easier to understand.  You will also find it interesting to click on the NUMIDENT link.  

 

[phkrause]

3 hours ago, Gregory Matthews said:

You will also find it interesting to click on the NUMIDENT link.

Interesting indeed!!