How can I identify pregnant women in the Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX) data?
Unfortunately, there is no reliable way to identify all pregnant women in either MSIS or MAX data. Pregnant women cannot be reliably identified from MSIS Basis of Eligibility (BOE) or Maintenance Assistance Status (MAS) groups that are used to create SMRF/MAX uniform eligibility codes. Also, there is no reliable way to identify all of these women in claims data because of alternative ways in which providers can bill for prenatal care (e.g. global billing). It is possible to identify some pregnant women using service codes in claims data and working backward from the date of birth of the newborn. There may be a number of problems with this approach, including the enrollment of mothers and newborns in prepaid plans. As noted elsewhere, reporting of encounter records for persons in prepaid plans is incomplete at this time.
