Open AccessMisclassification of Medicaid Participation by Dual Eligibles: Evidence From the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey
Author(s) -
Jennifer M. Mellor,
Melissa McInerney,
Lindsay M. Sabik
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
medical care research and review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.433
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1552-6801
pISSN - 1077-5587
DOI - 10.1177/1077558719858839
Subject(s) - medicaid , beneficiary , dual (grammatical number) , medicine , medicare part b , actuarial science , business , economic growth , economics , health care , finance , payment , art , literature
Previous studies show that survey-based reports of Medicaid participation are measured with error, but no prior study has examined measurement error in an important segment of the Medicaid population-low-income adults enrolled in Medicare. Using the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, we examine whether respondent self-reports of Medicaid enrollment match administrative records and present several key findings. First, among low-income Medicare beneficiaries, the false negative rate is 11.5% when the self-report is interpreted as full Medicaid and 3.7% when the self-report is interpreted as full or partial Medicaid. Second, the likelihood of a false negative report is systematically associated with respondent traits. Third, systematic measurement error results in biased coefficient estimates in models of Medicaid participation defined from self-reports, and the bias is more significant when the researcher interprets self-reports as full Medicaid coverage only. Researchers should use caution when interpreting survey reports as pertaining to full Medicaid coverage only.