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Medicare Claims Data (medicare + claim_data)
Selected AbstractsEvaluation of Three Algorithms to Identify Incident Breast Cancer in Medicare Claims DataHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 5 2007Heather T. Gold Objective. To test the validity of three published algorithms designed to identify incident breast cancer cases using recent inpatient, outpatient, and physician insurance claims data. Data. The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry data linked with Medicare physician, hospital, and outpatient claims data for breast cancer cases diagnosed from 1995 to 1998 and a 5 percent control sample of Medicare beneficiaries in SEER areas. Study Design. We evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of three algorithms applied to new data compared with original reported results. Algorithms use health insurance diagnosis and procedure claims codes to classify breast cancer cases, with SEER as the reference standard. We compare algorithms by age, stage, race, and SEER region, and explore via logistic regression whether adding demographic variables improves algorithm performance. Principal Findings. The sensitivity of two of three algorithms is significantly lower when applied to newer data, compared with sensitivity calculated during algorithm development (59 and 77.4 percent versus 90 and 80.2 percent, p<.00001). Sensitivity decreases as age increases, and false negative rates are higher for cases with in situ, metastatic, and unknown stage disease compared with localized or regional breast cancer. Substantial variation also exists by SEER registry. There was potential for improvement in algorithm performance when adding age, region, and race to an indicator variable for whether the algorithm determined a subject to be a breast cancer case (p<.00001). Conclusions. Differential sensitivity of the algorithms by SEER region and age likely reflects variation in practice patterns, because the algorithms rely on administrative procedure codes. Depending on the algorithm, 3,5 percent of subjects overall are misclassified in 1998. Misclassification disproportionately affects older women and those diagnosed with in situ, metastatic, or unknown-stage disease. Algorithms should be applied cautiously to insurance claims databases to assess health care utilization outside SEER-Medicare populations because of uneven misclassification of subgroups that may be understudied already. [source] Clarification Note to An Algorithm for the Use of Medicare Claims Data to Identify Women with Incident Breast CancerHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 1 2006A.B. Nattinger No abstract is available for this article. [source] Emergency Department Utilization by Noninstitutionalized EldersACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 3 2001Manish N. Shah MD Abstract. Objectives: To the best of the authors knowledge, no nationally representative, population-based study has characterized the proportion of elders using the emergency department (ED) and factors associated with ED use by elders. This article describes the proportion of elder Medicare beneficiaries using the ED and identifies attributes associated with elder ED users as compared with nonusers. Methods: The 1993 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey was used, a national, population-based, cross-sectional survey of Medicare beneficiaries linked with Medicare claims data. The study population was limited to 9,784 noninstitutionalized individuals aged 66 years or older. The Andersen model of health service utilization was used, which explains variation in ED use through a combination of predisposing (demographic and social), enabling (access to care), and need (comorbidity and health status) characteristics. Results: Eighteen percent of the sample used the ED at least once during 1993. Univariate analysis showed ED users were older; were less educated and lived alone; had lower income and higher Charlson Comorbidity Index scores; and were less satisfied with their ability to access care than nonusers (p < 0.01, chi-square). Logistic regression identified older age, less education, living alone, higher comorbidity scores, worse reported health, and increased difficulties with activities of daily living as factors associated with ED use (p < 0.05). Need characteristics predicted ED use with the greatest accuracy. Conclusions: The proportion of elder ED users is slightly higher than previously reported among Medicare beneficiaries. Need (comorbidity and health status) characteristics predict ED utilization with the greatest accuracy. [source] Use of Outpatient Care in Veterans Health Administration and Medicare among Veterans Receiving Primary Care in Community-Based and Hospital Outpatient ClinicsHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 5p1 2010Chuan-Fen Liu Objective. To examine differences in use of Veterans Health Administration (VA) and Medicare outpatient services by VA primary care patients. Data Sources/Study Setting. VA administrative and Medicare claims data from 2001 to 2004. Study Design. Retrospective cohort study of outpatient service use by 8,964 community-based and 6,556 hospital-based VA primary care patients. Principal Findings. A significant proportion of VA patients used Medicare-reimbursed primary care (>30 percent) and specialty care (>60 percent), but not mental health care (3,4 percent). Community-based patients had 17 percent fewer VA primary care visits (p<.001), 9 percent more Medicare-reimbursed visits (p<.001), and 6 percent fewer total visits (p<.05) than hospital-based patients. Community-based patients had 22 percent fewer VA specialty care visits (p<.0001) and 21 percent more Medicare-reimbursed specialty care visits (p<.0001) than hospital-based patients, but no difference in total visits (p=.80). Conclusions. Medicare-eligible VA primary care patients followed over 4 consecutive years used significant primary care and specialty care outside of VA. Community-based patients offset decreased VA use with increased service use paid by Medicare, suggesting that increasing access to VA primary care via community clinics may fragment veteran care in unintended ways. Coordination of care between VA and non-VA providers and health care systems is essential to improve the quality and continuity of care. [source] Access to Health Care Services for the Disabled ElderlyHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 3p1 2006Donald H. Taylor Jr. Objective. To determine whether difficulty walking and the strategies persons use to compensate for this deficit influenced downstream Medicare expenditures. Data Source. Secondary data analysis of Medicare claims data (1999,2000) for age-eligible Medicare beneficiaries (N=4,997) responding to the community portion of the 1999 National Long Term Care Survey (NLTCS). Study Design. Longitudinal cohort study. Walking difficulty and compensatory strategy were measured at the 1999 NLTCS, and used to predict health care use as measured in Medicare claims data from the survey date through year-end 2000. Data Extraction. Respondents to the 1999 community NLTCS with complete information on key explanatory variables (walking difficulty and compensatory strategy) were linked with Medicare claims to define outcome variables (health care use and cost). Principal Findings. Persons who reported it was very difficult to walk had more downstream home health visits (1.1/month, p<.001), but fewer outpatient physician visits (,0.16/month, p<.001) after controlling for overall disease burden. Those using a compensatory strategy for walking also had increased home health visits/month (0.55 for equipment, 1.0 for personal assistance, p<.001 for both) but did not have significantly reduced outpatient visits. Persons reporting difficulty walking had increased downstream Medicare costs ranging from $163 to $222/month (p<.001) depending upon how difficult walking was. Less than half of the persons who used equipment to adapt to walking difficulty had their difficulty fully compensated by the use of equipment. Persons using equipment that fully compensated their difficulty used around $300/month less in Medicare-financed costs compared with those with residual difficulty. Conclusions. Difficulty walking and use of compensatory strategies are correlated with the use of Medicare-financed services. The potential impact on the Medicare program is large, given how common such limitations are among the elderly. [source] Area-Level Poverty Is Associated with Greater Risk of Ambulatory,Care,Sensitive Hospitalizations in Older Breast Cancer SurvivorsJOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 12 2008Mario Schootman PhD OBJECTIVES: To estimate the frequency of ambulatory care,sensitive hospitalizations (ACSHs) and to compare the risk of ACSH in breast cancer survivors living in high-poverty with that of those in low-poverty areas. DESIGN: Prospective, multilevel study. SETTING: National, population-based 1991 to 1999 National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program data linked with Medicare claims data throughout the United States. PARTICIPANTS: Breast cancer survivors aged 66 and older. MEASUREMENTS: ACSH was classified according to diagnosis at hospitalization. The percentage of the population living below the U.S. federal poverty line was calculated at the census-tract level. Potential confounders included demographic characteristics, comorbidity, tumor and treatment factors, and availability of medical care. RESULTS: Of 47,643 women, 13.3% had at least one ACSH. Women who lived in high-poverty census tracts (,30% poverty rate) were 1.5 times (95% confidence interval (CI)=1.34,1.72) as likely to have at least one ACSH after diagnosis as women who lived in low-poverty census tracts (<10% poverty rate). After adjusting for most confounders, results remained unchanged. After adjustment for comorbidity, the hazard ratio (HR) was reduced to 1.34 (95% CI=1.18,1.52), but adjusting for all variables did not further reduce the risk of ACSH associated with poverty rate beyond adjustment for comorbidity (HR=1.37, 95% CI=1.19,1.58). CONCLUSION: Elderly breast cancer survivors who lived in high-poverty census tracts may be at increased risk of reduced posttreatment follow-up care, preventive care, or symptom management as a result of not having adequate, timely, and high-quality ambulatory primary care as suggested by ACSH. [source] Preliminary Derivation of a Nursing Home Confusion Assessment Method Based on Data from the Minimum Data SetJOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 7 2007David Dosa MD OBJECTIVES: To develop a Nursing Home Confusion Assessment Method (NH-CAM) for diagnosing delirium using items found on the Minimum Data Set (MDS) and to compare its performance with that of the delirium Resident Assessment Protocol (RAP) trigger and to an additive score of six of the RAP items. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study using MDS and Medicare claims data. SETTING: Free-standing NHs in urban markets in the 48 contiguous U.S. states. PARTICIPANTS: Long-stay residents who returned to their NHs after acute hospitalizations between April and September 2000 (N=35,721). MEASUREMENTS: Mortality and rehospitalization rates within 90 days of readmission to the NH from the hospital. RESULTS: Almost one-third (31.8%) of the residents were identified as having delirium according to the RAP; 1.4% had full delirium, 13.2% had Subsyndromal II delirium, and 17.2% had Subsyndromal I delirium. More-severe NH-CAM scores were associated with greater risks of mortality and rehospitalization. NH-CAM levels were strong independent risk factors for survival and rehospitalization in a Cox model (hazard ratios ranging from 1.5 to 1.9 for mortality and 1.1 to 1.3 for rehospitalization) adjusting for cognitive and physical function, diagnoses, inpatient care parameters, care preferences, and sociodemographic factors. CONCLUSION: The NH-CAM successfully stratified NH residents' risk of mortality and rehospitalization. If validated clinically, the NH-CAM may be useful in care planning and in further research on the determinants and consequences of delirium in the NH. [source] Predictors of Health Resource Use by Disabled Older Female Medicare Beneficiaries Living in the CommunityJOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 3 2003Michael Weiner MD OBJECTIVES: To identify specific clinical factors that could best predict resource use by disabled older women. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: Urban community in Baltimore, Maryland. PARTICIPANTS: One thousand two community-dwelling, moderately to severely disabled, female Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 and older, from the Women's Health and Aging Study I (WHAS). MEASUREMENTS: WHAS data were merged with participants' 1992,1994 Medicare claims data for the year after baseline evaluation, reflecting inpatient, outpatient, home-based, and skilled-nursing services. The independent contributions of factors hypothesized to predict health expenditures were assessed, using chi-square and regression analyses, with the logarithm of Medicare expenditures as the primary outcome. RESULTS: Demographic factors were not associated with Medicare expenditures. Factors associated with expenditures in bivariate analyses included heart disease (1.4x), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (1.3x), diabetes mellitus (1.1x), smoking, comorbidity, and severity of disability, as well as low creatinine clearance, serum albumin, caloric expenditure, or skinfold thickness. Heart disease, diabetes mellitus, and low skinfold thickness remained significant after adjustment for other factors. CONCLUSION: Heart disease, diabetes mellitus, and low skinfold thickness are important independent predictors of 1-year Medicare expenditures by disabled older women. Many other variables that reflect disease, disability, nutrition, or personal habits have less predictive ability. Most demographic factors are not predictors of expenditures in this population. Focusing on the best predictors may facilitate more-effective risk adjustment and creation of related health policies. [source] Trends and Outcomes in the Hospitalization of Older Americans for Cardiac Conduction Disorders or Arrhythmias, 1991,1998JOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 6 2001William B. Baine MD OBJECTIVE: To identify epidemiological trends and measure outcomes in elderly patients hospitalized for cardiac conduction disorders or arrhythmias. DESIGN: Review of the standard 5% samples of the Medicare Provider Analysis and Review Files to characterize 144,512 discharges from 1991 through 1998 in which the principal diagnosis was a conduction disorder or arrhythmia, using the corresponding Enrollment Databases for denominator data. SETTING: Short-stay hospitals in the United States. PARTICIPANTS: Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older in the standard 5% sample. MEASUREMENTS: Diagnosis-specific trends and rates; discharges by year; cumulative age-, race-, and sex-specific discharge rates; mean length of stay in hospital and in intensive care; mean Medicare reimbursement to the hospital; case-fatality rate in hospital; discharge destinations of patients discharged alive. RESULTS: Annual hospitalizations for sinoatrial node dysfunction, atrial flutter, atrial fibrillation, or ventricular fibrillation increased more rapidly than did the elderly Medicare beneficiary population. Hospitalizations with a principal diagnosis of ventricular extrasystoles or asystole showed steep secular declines. Discharge rates for sinoatrial node dysfunction, a group of rhythms with a nonsinus pacemaker, atrial fibrillation, Mobitz I, or complete atrioventricular block all increased steeply and continuously with patient age. In contrast, discharge rates for atrial flutter or ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation peaked among 75- to 84-year-old patients. White men were at uniquely high risk of hospitalization for atrial flutter or ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation, and, among the white majority, men had higher discharge rates than women for nine of the 11 commonest rubrics. Whites, particularly white women, had the highest discharge rates for atrial fibrillation. Blacks, especially black women, were at disproportionate risk for hospitalization for the group of nonsinus pacemaker rhythms. Diagnosis-specific mean resource costs were strongly correlated with each other and with mean Medicare reimbursement but not with case-fatality rate. CONCLUSION: Medicare claims data demonstrated striking differences among and within diagnoses of heart blocks or arrhythmias in terms of the populations at greatest risk for hospitalization. This variation should be explored further to generate and test hypotheses about differential causation or delivery of care. J Am Geriatr Soc 49:763,770, 2001. [source] Validation of diagnostic codes for outpatient-originating sudden cardiac death and ventricular arrhythmia in Medicaid and Medicare claims data,PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY AND DRUG SAFETY, Issue 6 2010Sean Hennessy PharmD Abstract Purpose Sudden cardiac death (SD) and ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) caused by medications have arisen as an important public health concern in recent years. The validity of diagnostic codes in identifying SD/VA events originating in the ambulatory setting is not well known. This study examined the positive predictive value (PPV) of hospitalization and emergency department encounter diagnoses in identifying SD/VA events originating in the outpatient setting. Methods We selected random samples of hospitalizations and emergency department claims with principal or first-listed discharge diagnosis codes indicative of SD/VA in individuals contributing at least 6 months of baseline time within 1999,2002 Medicaid and Medicare data from five large states. We then obtained and reviewed medical records corresponding to these events to serve as the reference standard. Results We identified 5239 inpatient and 29,135 emergency department events, randomly selected 100 of each, and obtained 119 medical records, 116 of which were for the requested courses of care. The PPVs for an outpatient-originating SD/VA precipitating hospitalization or emergency department treatment were 85.3% (95% confidence interval [CI],=,77.6,91.2) overall, 79.7% (95%CI,=,68.3,88.4) for hospitalization claims, and 93.6% (95%CI,=,82.5,98.7) for emergency department claims. Conclusions First-listed SD/VA diagnostic codes identified in inpatient or emergency department encounters had very good agreement with clinical diagnoses and functioned well to identify outpatient-originating events. Researchers using such codes can be confident of the PPV when conducting studies of SD/VA originating in the outpatient setting. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Resource Use and Cost of Diagnostic Workup of Women with Suspected Breast CancerTHE BREAST JOURNAL, Issue 1 2009David W. Lee PhD Abstract:, We estimated resource use and costs associated with a diagnostic workup for suspected breast cancer among Medicare beneficiaries. Using Medicare claims data, we found that the average cost of a diagnostic workup for suspected breast cancer,whether it eventuated in a breast cancer diagnosis or not,was $361, and did not vary by presentation (signs/symptoms or screening mammography). In the aggregate, we estimate that Medicare spends approximately $679 million annually on diagnostic workups for women with suspected breast cancer, and that false positive mammograms result in diagnostic costs of approximately $250 million. [source] The Pregnancy Rate and Live Birth Rate in Kidney Transplant RecipientsAMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 7 2009J. S. Gill Fertility is one of the potential benefits for women undergoing kidney transplantation; however, population-based information about the likelihood of pregnancy and successful fetal outcome is not available. In this observational study of 16 195 female kidney transplant recipients aged 15,45 years in the United States between 1990 and 2003, we determined the pregnancy rate and live birth rate using Medicare claims data from the first three posttransplant years. The pregnancy rate was 33 per thousand female transplant recipients between 1990 and 2003 and progressively declined from 59 in 1990 to 20 in 2000. The live birth rate between 1990 and 2003 was 19 per thousand female transplant recipients and declined in parallel with the pregnancy rate. Despite a decrease in therapeutic abortions over time, the proportion of pregnancies resulting in fetal loss (45.6%) remained constant during the study due to an increase in spontaneous abortions and other causes of fetal loss. The pregnancy rate in kidney transplant recipients was markedly lower and declined more rapidly than reported in the general American population during the same period. The live birth rate was substantially lower than reported in voluntary registries of transplant recipients, and the proportion of pregnancies resulting in unexpected fetal loss increased over time. [source] Accuracy of medicare claims data in identifying Parkinsonism cases: Comparison with the medicare current beneficiary surveyMOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue 4 2007Katia Noyes PhD Abstract Study Purpose Administrative databases are commonly used to examine use of healthcare service, with researchers relying on diagnostic codes to identify medical conditions. This study evaluates the accuracy of administrative claims in identifying Parkinsonism cases compared to the self-reported Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods The reference cases were identified based on the self-reported PD status and the use of PD drugs collected by the 1992,2000 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey that contained 72,922 observations from 30,469 individuals. Using ICD-9 CM, cases with PD were extracted from the corresponding Medicare claims. We compared prevalence of PD obtained using different types of claims. Results The sensitivities were the highest when all claims were used (66%). All the specificities were greater than 99%. When drug use information was included in the gold standard, the sensitivities became lower, while the specificities and positive predictive values (PPVs) increased. Using more diagnostic codes improved the sensitivity of the identification process but reduced PPVs. Conclusions Administrative claims can provide fairly accurate and practical approach to "rule in" patients with PD. Depending on the purpose of evaluation, researchers may consider using more categories of claims to improve the sensitivity of the identification algorithm or use fewer diagnoses to minimize number of false positive cases. © 2006 Movement Disorder Society [source] | ||||||||||