Abstract: Dr. Tamara Konetzka is leading an analytic team aiming to improve previous analyses of Medicare costs for patients receiving care at a health center versus a non-health center. The team will improve previous research by estimating total Medicare and Medicaid costs dually. They will also examine long-term care costs by including Medicaid costs, which was previously excluded from prior analyses. The new study will use improved methodology used to address selection bias present in the difference between people who utilized health centers versus those who receive care from other settings. The population of focus for this study will be Medicare Beneficiaries and Dual Eligibles (those enrolled in Medicaid and Medicare).
Associated Authors: Dr. Tamara Konetzka is a Professor of Health Services Research at the University of Chicago’s Department of Public Health Sciences as well as a Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Department of Medicine. Her background is in Health Policy and Administration, Economics, Political Science and Urban and Regional Planning. Robert Nocon, Senior Health Services Researcher at the Chicago Center for Diabetes, will be the co-author of this study.
The Medicaid Working Group at the University of Chicago is among the first to use a national panel of MAX files to assess program-wide performance and disease prevalence both at a single point in time and over several years. The working group’s findings have and will continue to allow state Medicaid programs and federal policymakers to understand how shifts in the external policy environment are impacting the care of Medicaid beneficiaries, and will additionally facilitate efforts to identify opportunities to improve the coordination of resources for the growing Medicaid population.