Validation of Medicare Rehabilitation Functional Assessments in Routine Care

Key Points Question Are functional assessments in rehabilitation settings valid measures? Findings In this cross-sectional study of 1036 Medicare beneficiaries, the correlation of functional assessments from rehabilitation services with National Health and Aging Trends Study assessments was 0.63 when assessments were performed no more than 90 days apart and 0.66 when performed no more than 30 days apart. Differences in assessment scores were generally small; however, assessments from the National Health and Aging Trends Study tended to be lower than those from rehabilitation services in a small sample of older adults with less function. Meaning These findings suggest that Medicare rehabilitation functional assessments may be sufficiently associated with functional outcomes for use in some research applications.