The Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) serves as the leading source of information on the Medicare program and its impact on beneficiaries. In response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, data collection for the MCBS rapidly shifted from in-person to phone interviewing in March 2020. This led to a revised design incorporating both phone and in-person outreach and shifting to a multimode data collection design. In Fall 2021, the MCBS began to gradually reintroduce in-person data collection activities, starting with in-person recruitment for the purpose of non-response follow-up. This return to field activities presented an opportunity to analyze the outcomes of in-person outreach as a companion for phone recruitment for the Incoming Panel in 2021. This paper describes the protocol used and discusses the outcomes associated with in-person outreach. The analysis considers differences in final case status or contacting patterns as a result of respondent material packet drop-offs versus short in-person conversations, as well as variation by demographic and other health status subgroups.
