Search Tips

The Search page gives Web users access to an advanced search engine. But even though the search engine is advanced, users can form queries with simple language. This page will help you to choose the queries that will give you the best results.

The Basics

An query is simply a description of information that you need. The Search page will search for documents that are a best match for the words in your query. It will also search for documents that are about the same concepts that your query describes.  Sometimes the search will bring back articles that don't mention any of the words in your original query.

Don't worry about providing too many words—the more words, the better. Additional words will help the Search figure out what concepts you're really interested in. On the other hand, the Search will do a pretty good job of figuring out what documents are interesting to you even if your query is unclear.

For example, let's say you're searching a Web site for documents about bone mass measurements. You would type in:

Bone Mass Measurements

If you have a particular question about bone mass measurements, for example: how often screening tests are available for bone mass measurements, you would type in:

How often screening tests for bone mass measurements

Even if there are no documents that are actually about how often there are screening tests, the Search will still show you documents on bone mass measurements.

Selection Fields

Here are some suggestions for narrowing down your Search results:

Site Section:  You may select which section of the website that you would like to search. The choices are: California, New England, Beneficiary, EDI, DME or Any ('any' includes all sections).

Date Range: You may select the date range of the selections you will receive. The choices are: past week, past month, past 3 months, past 6 months, anytime ('anytime' will include all date ranges).

Sort By: You may select how you would like your search results sorted and displayed. the choices are: rank (most relevant), title, date last modified (most recent dates will be displayed first).

Search Within Results: After you have search results displayed, you may do another search within the first set of results, in order to narrow it down. For example: If you enter ambulance (leaving all settings on default), you will receive 300 or so results. If you then enter the word 'air' and put "yes" for this field, you will narrow the selections down to about 50 results. This will include all the original ambulance articles that now discuss air ambulance.

Advanced Query Tips

Here are some suggestions for getting the best results out of the Search page.

Use More Words

The easiest way to narrow your search, and the first thing you should try is to use more words. The greater the detail you provide, the better search is able to find precisely what you're looking for.

Use + to Require Words

If you put a plus sign (+) in front of a search word, the search will make sure that ALL of the documents it returns contain the word. Do not put a space between the plus sign (+) and the word.

Example search: Preventative Services +Colorectal. All of the results will have the word “colorectal” in them.

Use - to Exclude Words

If you put a minus sign (-) in front of a search word, the search will make sure that NONE of the documents it returns contain the word. Do not put any space between the minus sign (-) and the word.

Example search: Preventative Services  -Colorectal. None of the results will have the word “colorectal” in them.

Use AND, OR, NOT, AND NOT, ( )

You can use the AND, OR, NOT, and AND NOT, and parentheses ( ) for grouping.

What they do/How to use them:

AND - Documents found must contain all words joined by the word AND. Note that this is equivalent to putting a plus sign (+) in front of the word. For example, to find documents that have all of the words wizard, oz and movie, you could enter: wizard AND oz AND movie

OR - Documents found must contain at least one of the words joined by OR. For example, to find documents that have either the words cat or kitten you could enter: cat OR kitten

AND NOT - Documents found cannot contain the word after the term AND NOT. Note that this is equivalent to putting a minus sign (-) in front of the word. For example, to find documents that have the word pets, but not the word dogs, you could enter: pets AND NOT dogs

( ) - Parentheses are used to group portions of queries together. For example, to find documents that have the word fruit, and either the word banana or the word apple in them, you could enter: fruit AND (banana OR apple)

07/20/06