Medicare Secondary Payer

MSP

member

Updated 5/16/2026

Definition

A CMS regulatory framework determining when Medicare pays secondary to other insurance coverage, such as employer group health plans or workers' compensation. MSP data is captured in eligibility and COB records within claims systems, with MSP reason codes on 837 transactions driving primary payer routing and claim adjudication sequencing logic.

Standard Abbreviation

MSP

Database Usage

-- Example column naming
CREATE TABLE claims (
  clm_id VARCHAR(50),
  msp VARCHAR(100),  -- Medicare Secondary Payer (max 100 chars)
  ...
);

-- Example in SELECT
SELECT
  clm_id,
  msp as medicare_secondary_payer
FROM claims;

Common uses in healthcare data

Member eligibility verification and enrollment tracking
Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care reporting
COBRA, CHIP, and dual-eligible member management
Enrollment reconciliation and CMS submissions
Member 360 data model and longitudinal analysis

Example database column name

ISO-11179 snake_case standard

-- Recommended column name
msp

-- Example DDL
CREATE TABLE healthcare_data (
  record_id   VARCHAR(50)   NOT NULL,
  msp          VARCHAR(100),  -- Medicare Secondary Payer (max 100 chars)
  created_dt  TIMESTAMP     NOT NULL DEFAULT NOW()
);

Column names follow the ISO-11179 naming convention: lowercase, underscore-separated, using the standard abbreviation as a prefix where applicable.

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