Examining Race and Ethnicity Information in Medicare Administrative Data.

Racial and ethnic disparities are observed in the health status and health outcomes of Medicare beneficiaries. Reducing these disparities is a national priority, and having high-quality data on individuals' race and ethnicity is critical for researchers working to do so. However, using Medicare data to identify race and ethnicity is not straightforward.

Defining Rurality in Medicare Administrative Data.

Rural beneficiaries make up nearly one quarter of the Medicare population, yet rural providers and patients face specific challenges with health and health care delivery that remain inadequately understood. Health disparities between rural and urban residents are widespread, barriers to health care in rural communities persist, and the rural health care workforce is limited. To better understand and track the relationship between rurality and performance under Medicare's payment programs, researchers must be able to identify rural beneficiaries, providers, and hospitals.

Examining Measures of Income and Poverty in Medicare Administrative Data.

Disparities by economic status are observed in the health status and health outcomes of Medicare beneficiaries. For health services and health policy researchers, one barrier to addressing these disparities is the ability to use Medicare data to ascertain information about an individual's income level or poverty, because Medicare administrative data contains limited information about individual economic status. Information gleaned from other sources-such as the Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income programs-can be used in some cases to approximate the income of Medicare beneficiaries.