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Identifying Homeless Medicaid Enrollees Using Enrollment Addresses
Author(s) -
Vickery Katherine D.,
Shippee Nathan D.,
Bodurtha Peter,
GuzmanCorrales Laura M.,
Reamer Elyse,
Soderlund Dana,
Abel Stephanie,
Robertshaw Danielle,
Gelberg Lillian
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
health services research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.706
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1475-6773
pISSN - 0017-9124
DOI - 10.1111/1475-6773.12738
Subject(s) - medicaid , psychosocial , medicine , gerontology , family medicine , actuarial science , health care , psychiatry , business , political science , law
Objective To design and test the validity of a method to identify homelessness among Medicaid enrollees using mailing address data. Data Sources/Study Setting Enrollment and claims data on Medicaid expansion enrollees in Hennepin and Ramsey counties who also provided self‐reported information on their current housing situation in a psychosocial needs assessment. Study Design Construction of address‐based indicators and comparison with self‐report data. Principal Findings Among 1,677 enrollees, 427 (25 percent) self‐reported homelessness, of whom 328 (77 percent) had at least one positive address indicator. Depending on the type of addresses included in the indicator, sensitivity to detect self‐reported homelessness ranged from 30 to 76 percent and specificity from 79 to 97 percent. Conclusions An address‐based indicator can identify a large proportion of Medicaid enrollees who are experiencing homelessness. This approach may be of interest to researchers, states, and health systems attempting to identify homeless populations.