Chapter Summary
Exercises
Chapter 9: Programming to Identify Chronic Conditions
Introduction and Goals
Review and Approach
Review: Peculiarities of Medicare Data
Our Programming Plan
A Note on the Chronic Conditions Data Warehouse (CCW)
Algorithms: Identifying Beneficiaries with Diabetes or COPD
Algorithms: Evaluation and Management Visits for Beneficiaries with Diabetes or COPD
Algorithms: Diabetic Eye Exams for Beneficiaries with Diabetes
Algorithms: Hospital Readmissions for Beneficiaries with COPD
Chapter Summary
Exercises
Chapter 10: Presenting Output and Project Disposition
Introduction
Synthesis – Review and Approach
Review: Our Accomplishments
Our Programming Plan
Algorithms: Presenting Selected Measurements of Utilization, Cost to Medicare, and Quality Outcomes
Presenting Ambulance Utilization
Presenting Medicare Payments for Evaluation and Management Services by Provider
Presenting Rates of Diabetes and COPD
Algorithms: Presenting Inpatient Length of Stay Information by State
Algorithms: Presenting Mean Medicare Part A Payments per Beneficiary by State and County
Algorithms: Presenting Rates of Diabetic Eye Exams
Production Execution in Batch
Project Disposition
Archiving Materials for Future Use
Data Destruction
Chapter Summary
Exercises
About This Book
Purpose
This book teaches you how to access Medicare data and, more importantly, how to apply this data to your research. Knowing how to use Medicare data to answer common research and business questions is a critical skill for many SAS users. Due to its complexity, Medicare data requires specific programming knowledge in order to be applied accurately. Programmers need to understand the Medicare program to properly interpret and use its data. With this book, you’ll learn the entire process of programming with Medicare data—from obtaining access to data; to measuring cost, utilization, and quality; to overcoming common challenges. Each chapter includes exercises that challenge you to apply learned concepts to real-world programming tasks.
Is This Book for You?
This book is a must for anyone interested in programming with Medicare data in SAS. This includes students, professional researchers, and employees in the federal and state governments. SAS® Programming with Medicare Administrative Data offers beginners a programming project template to follow from beginning to end. It also includes more complex questions and discussions that are appropriate for advanced users.
Prerequisites
This book has no prerequisites, and is designed for SAS users at all levels, as well as readers with varying levels of knowledge of the Medicare program and Medicare data. Those readers with experience in SAS, but with no background in healthcare or Medicare data, could focus more on Chapter 1 through Chapter 5. In these chapters, we learn about the Medicare program, how the Medicare program drives the content of the data, and the acquisition of Medicare administrative claims and enrollment data. Those readers with knowledge of the Medicare program, but not Medicare data or SAS, could focus more on Chapter 3, where we discuss Medicare data, as well as Chapter 6 through Chapter 10, where we develop the majority of SAS code.
Scope of This Book
The main topics covered in the book include:
• An introduction to the Medicare program;
• A detailed introduction to Medicare data;
• A discussion of how to plan a research programming project;
• Methods to obtain Medicare data;
• Instructions for programming with Medicare data to measure utilization, cost, and quality;
• A demonstration of how to present findings;
• A helpful explanation of how to sunset a research programming project
Because this book is foundational, it does not cover more complex manipulations or analyses, such as risk adjustment or payment standardization algorithms. It does, however, provide the reader with ample background information to tackle these topics independently.
About the Examples
Software Used to Develop the Book's Content
SAS 9.3
Example Code and Data
You can access the example code and data for this book by linking to its author page at http://support.sas.com/publishing/authors/gillingham.html. For an alphabetical listing of all books for which example code and data is available, see http://support.sas.com/bookcode. Select a title to display the book’s example code.
If you are unable to access the code through the website, e-mail [email protected].
Output and Graphics Used in This Book
The output in this book was generated using ODS.
Exercise Solutions
You can access the exercise solutions for this book by linking to its author page at http://support.sas.com/publishing/authors/gillingham.html.
