evidence: Additionally, in July/August following the end of a given data year, the final file is ‘closed’ in order to produce the historical and public use files and reports. After it is considered closed, the final file is no longer updated, even if additional updates or records are received from the jurisdictions. The result is that some records that are in the final annual file may still list an unknown cause of death or manner of death indicating ‘pending investigation.’ The provisional data continues to be updated as additional cause of death information is received, and the counts may increase in response to these changes. As a result, provisional drug overdose death counts published in the VSRR for the 2022 data year (i.e., 12-month ending period in Dec 2022) may differ from the counts published using the 2022 final data. The size of the discrepancy is typically small (approximately 500 additional drug overdose death records in the provisional data that were ‘pending investigation’ or had an unknown cause of death in the final data).