Does the CDC recommend using Medicare and Medicaid data for surveillance or to generate cost estimates?
No. Dr. Ken Powell from the Georgia Department of Human Resources explored the use of these data (Powell KE, Diseker RA, Presley RJ, et al. Administrative data as a tool for arthritis surveillance: Estimating prevalence and utilization of services. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. 2003;9(4):291–298). He found one can obtain different answers, depending on 1) how variables are defined, 2) the number of years included, and 3) how enrollment is defined. He also found that using these data was very labor intensive and was difficult to justify. In the absence of a clear link to a project, or to your state arthritis plan, we recommend you do not analyze Medicaid or Medicare data, especially if it takes program resources.
