Download death master file

In the last 10 years, there have been some significant changes to the DMF both in access and usage. The federal government applied a drastic change to the way that it processed data on reported deaths in order to compile the public Death Master File. In November the SSA reviewed its obligations towards certain state records and announced that it had a statutory obligation to keep that information derived from state records confidential.

As a result, SSA removed about 4. The reason is largely due to death data ownership. States have long held and Congress concurs that states own the vital records of people who die within their boundaries. The sale of those records to the federal government is a source of revenue for states. However, the SSA interprets Section r of the Social Security Act as barring it from sharing the costs it pays for state data with other federal partners and the same law prohibits SSA from sharing state data with the private sector and most non-benefit-paying federal agencies.

The change was unexpected and did not receive much publicity. It effectively resulted in the development of two versions of the DMF — the publicly available version and the complete version. The ACAB may conduct periodic audits to verify the continued security of the data. Organizations must also be able to demonstrate a legitimate purpose pursuant to a law, government ruling, regulation or fiduciary duty. The SSA is required to do so for a period of three years beginning three years after enactment.

Specific to the coronavirus stimulus payments to deceased recipients, the IRS is now saying that the money needs to be returned. If the checks were sent by mail, they should be voided and mailed back to the IRS.

If the payments were made via direct deposit, the taxpayer should write a check to the government and mail it in. However, as noted in the June GAO Report, the IRS does not have a plan to take additional steps to notify ineligible recipients on how to return payments.

Despite its complex history and the challenges to its data sources, the pubic Death Master File remains the most accurate and reliable way to screen for death records — even with the reduced number of deaths reported. Streamline Verify works to provide all legally available death records presented through the National Technical Information Service Death Master File with the highest possible degree of accuracy.

While some professionals know about the effects of removing 4. Therefore, when clients turn to us to check on death status, they may be confused when a death they are inquiring about is no longer captured in the DMF. Services such as Streamline Verify can only share information included in the public Death Master File — if a file has been removed by the SSA, it will no longer be captured in any search.

Healthcare organizations and workers now have an easier way to come up with smart HR and OIG compliance practices. Streamline Verify created a clever way to summarize the rules and regulations Leading government agencies, financial institutions, investigative firms, credit reporting organizations, medical researchers, and other industries use the SSA Death Master File DMF to verify death, as well as to prevent fraud.

The DMF is an important tool used for verifying death. Medical researchers, hospitals, and medical treatment programs use the DMF to track former patients and study subjects, while law enforcement agencies, and investigative firms use the DMF, in the course of their investigations, to verify a person's death.

Pension funds, insurance companies, Federal, State, and Local government agencies and others responsible for providing benefits or making benefit payments to retirees, recipients, or beneficiaries also use the DMF to verify if someone receiving a benefit or payment is deceased.

Finally, professional and amateur genealogists can use the DMF to search for loved ones, or work toward growing their family trees.

The Death Master File is an important tool which can be used by pension funds, insurance organizations, Federal, State and Local governments and others responsible for verifying deceased person s in support of fulfillment of benefits to their beneficiaries. By methodically running financial, credit, payment and other applications against the Death Master File, the financial community, insurance companies, security firms and state and local governments are better able to identify and prevent identity fraud, and identify customers who are deceased.

The USA Patriot Act Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of , requires an effort to verify the identity of customers, including procedures to verify customer identity and maintaining records of information used to verify identity.

Institutions now have the option of subscribing to an online search application or maintaining a raw data version of the file at their location.

The online service is updated on a weekly basis, and raw data file weekly and monthly updates are offered electronically via https, as well as via secure FTP, reducing handling and production time. Further, in rare instances it is possible for the records of a person who is not deceased to be included erroneously in the DMF. Skip to Main Content. Department of Commerce logo. About NTIS. Search NTIS. The fees are non-refundable.

Certification must be renewed each year. The attestation must be renewed every three years. Firewalled status must be renewed every three years. The Death Master File is an important tool to verify deaths. Select the product which meets your organization's needs:.