California Cancer Reporting System Standards Volume I: Abstracting and Coding Procedures
Cancer reporting facilities that serve patients in the U.S. Navy or Merchant Marine need detailed rules for determining whether their patients are residents of their region for purposes of cancer reporting. The rules for determining residency are the same as those used by the Census Bureau. The guidelines that follow were adapted from U.S. Department of Commerce publications.
See Appendix B - Postal Code Abbreviations, for military personnel serving abroad.
Navy Personnel
Patients diagnosed with cancer while their ships are deployed overseas are considered overseas residents for cancer-reporting purposes. .
For ships not deployed overseas, specific rules (shown in the chart below) apply.
The Navy assigns a home port to each of its ships. .
If a ship that is not deployed overseas is not berthed in its home port, any crew member diagnosed with cancer is considered a resident of the home port.
If the ship is berthed in its home port, and the home port has fewer than 1000 naval personnel assigned to ships, a crew member diagnosed with cancer is considered a resident of the ship.
If, however, the home port has more than 1000 naval personnel assigned to ships and the cancer patient has a usual residence within 50 miles of the home port, the person's residence is the home, not the ship itself.
If the patient's usual residence is more than 50 miles from the home port, he or she is considered to be a resident of the ship.
For patients who are considered residents of a ship, code residence as the ship's home port unless the home port is contained in more than one municipality.
In that case, code the patient's residence as the municipality immediately adjacent to the dock or pier where the ship is berthed.
Crews of Merchant Vessels:
Crews of U.S. vessels outside the U.S., or crews of vessels flying a foreign flag, are considered non-residents.
If a U.S. vessel is not berthed in a U.S. port but is in territorial waters, and the port of destination is inside the U.S., a crew member diagnosed with cancer is considered a resident of the port of destination.
If the destination is outside the U.S., the home port of the ship is considered the patient's residence.
If a U.S. vessel is berthed in a U.S. port at the time of diagnosis, the patient is a resident of that port.
* If home port is maintained in more than municipality, code patient as resident of the municipality immediately adjacent to the dock or pier where the U.S vessel is berthed.
CHART
Summary of Rules for Determining Residency of Navy Personnel Assigned to Ships