Accuracy and Completeness of Medicare Claims Data for Surgical Treatment of Breast Cancer
- 1 July 2000
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wolters Kluwer Health in Medical Care
- Vol. 38 (7), 719-727
- https://doi.org/10.1097/00005650-200007000-00004
Abstract
Although a number of studies have used Medicare claims data to study trends and variations in breast cancer treatment, the accuracy and completeness of information on surgical treatment for breast cancer in the Medicare data have not been validated. This study assessed the accuracy and completeness of Medicare claims data for breast cancer surgery to determine whether Medicare claims can serve as a source of data to augment information collected by cancer registries. We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Cancer Registry-Medicare data and compared Medicare claims on surgery with the surgery recorded by the SEER registries for 23,709 women diagnosed with breast cancer at ≥65 years of age from 1991 through 1993. More than 95% of women having mastectomies according to the Medicare data were confirmed by SEER. For breast-conserving surgery, 91% of cases were confirmed by SEER. The Medicare physician services claims and inpatient claims were approximately equal in accuracy on type of surgery. The Medicare outpatient claims were less accurate for breast-conserving surgery. In terms of completeness, when the 3 claims sources were combined, 94% of patients receiving breast cancer surgery according to SEER were identified by Medicare. The combined Medicare claims database, which includes the inpatient, outpatient, and physician service claims, provides valid information on surgical treatment among women known to have breast cancer. The claims are a rich source of data to augment the information collected by tumor registries and provide information that can be used to follow long-term outcomes of Medicare beneficiaries.Keywords
This publication has 26 references indexed in Scilit:
- Information on Radiation Treatment in Patients with Breast Cancer: The Advantages of the Linked Medicare and SEER DataJournal of Clinical Epidemiology, 1999
- Ability of Medicare Claims Data and Cancer Registries to Identify Cancer Cases and TreatmentAmerican Journal of Epidemiology, 1997
- Clinical surveillance for early stage breast cancer: An analysis of claims dataBreast Cancer Research and Treatment, 1996
- Minimal Increase in Use of Breast-Conserving Surgery from 1986 to 1990Medical Care, 1996
- Using Medicare Claims for Outcomes ResearchMedical Care, 1994
- Measuring the incidence of cancer in elderly americans using medicare claims dataCancer, 1994
- Epidemiologic Uses of Medicare DataEpidemiologic Reviews, 1993
- Studying Outcomes and Hospital Utilization in the ElderlyMedical Care, 1992
- Geographic Variation in the Use of Breast-Conserving Treatment for Breast CancerNew England Journal of Medicine, 1992
- Accuracy of Medicare Claims Data for Estimation of Cancer Incidence and Resection Rates Among Elderly AmericansMedical Care, 1991