IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/fhecpo/v14y2011i3n3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Potential Enhancements to Data on Health Insurance, Health Services, and Medicare in the Health and Retirement Study

Author

Listed:
  • Ayanian John Z

    (Harvard Medical School)

  • Meara Ellen

    (Dartmouth College)

  • McWilliams J. Michael

    (Harvard Medical School)

Abstract

As a nationally representative cohort of middle-aged and elderly adults with longitudinal data spanning nearly two decades, the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is an important resource for researchers studying the dynamics of health insurance coverage in the United States and the relation of insurance coverage to the use of health services and to health outcomes. We assessed the strengths and limitations of currently available HRS data for such research, focusing on survey items in these domains and Medicare claims data that have been linked to HRS survey data. The process for researchers to obtain Medicare claims has greatly improved in recent years. The additions of biomarkers (e.g. blood pressure and serum cholesterol) and objective measures of physical functioning for HRS participants have also been notable improvements. We propose changes to the HRS to enhance its value for health services research, particularly regarding the effects of health care reform as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 is implemented over the next decade.

Suggested Citation

  • Ayanian John Z & Meara Ellen & McWilliams J. Michael, 2011. "Potential Enhancements to Data on Health Insurance, Health Services, and Medicare in the Health and Retirement Study," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 14(3), pages 1-12, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:fhecpo:v:14:y:2011:i:3:n:3
    DOI: 10.2202/1558-9544.1262
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2202/1558-9544.1262
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2202/1558-9544.1262?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:fhecpo:v:14:y:2011:i:3:n:3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.