Abstract
Objective
The objective of this study was to determine whether the Minimum Data Set (MDS) 3.0
discharge record accurately identifies hospitalizations and deaths of nursing home
residents.
Design
We merged date of death from Medicare enrollment data and hospital inpatient claims
with MDS discharge records to check whether the same information can be verified from
both the sources. We examined the association of 30-day rehospitalization rates from
nursing homes calculated only from MDS and only from claims. We also examined how
correspondence between these 2 data sources varies across nursing homes.
Settings
All fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare beneficiaries admitted for Medicare-paid (with
prospective payment system) skilled nursing facility (SNF) care in 2011.
Results
Some 94% of hospitalization events in Medicare claims can be identified using MDS
discharge records and 87% of hospitalization events detected in MDS data can be verified
by Medicare hospital claims. Death can be identified almost perfectly from MDS discharge
records. More than 99% of the variation in nursing home–level 30-day rehospitalization
rate calculated using claims data can be explained by the same rates calculated using
MDS. Nursing home structural characteristics explain only 5% of the variation in nursing
home–level sensitivity and 3% of the variation in nursing home–level specificity.
Conclusion
The new MDS 3.0 discharge record matches Medicare enrollment and hospitalization claims
events with a high degree of accuracy, meaning that hospitalization rates calculated
based on MDS offer a good proxy for the “gold standard” Medicare data.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 29, 2014
Footnotes
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
