Evaluating Race and Ethnicity of Medicaid Participants Using Census Data

• Activity Number: 475
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 7, 2013 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
• Author(s): Leticia Fernandez*+ and James Noon and Sonya Rastogi and Sharon Ennis
• Companies: U.S. Census Bureau and US Census Bureau and U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Census Bureau
• Keywords: Medicaid ; Agreement of race and Hispanic origin responses ; Linked administrative records and Census data

Abstract

Racial and ethnic disparities in health and health care are complex and continue to challenge researchers and policy makers. With the intention of improving the measurement and monitoring of disparities, certain provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 will require states in the coming years to collect, report and analyze data on demographic characteristics of applicants and participants in Medicaid and other federally supported programs. By linking Medicaid records to 2010 Census, American Community Survey, and Census 2000, this new large-scale study examines and documents the extent to which pre-ACA Medicaid administrative records match self-reported race and Hispanic origin in Census data. Linked records allow comparisons between individuals with matching and non-matching race and Hispanic origin data across several demographic, socioeconomic and neighborhood characteristics, such as age, gender, language proficiency, education and Census tract characteristics. Identification of the groups most likely to have non-matching and missing race and Hispanic origin data in Medicaid relative to Census data can inform strategies to improve the quality of demographic data collected from the Medicaid population.