Identifying Trans Medicare Beneficiaries: Initial Results from CMS Administrative Claims

• Activity Number: 93 - TRANScending Data Gaps: Advances in Transgender Research Using Survey and Administrative Data
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Monday, July 31, 2017 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Government Statistics Section
• Author(s): Christina N Dragon* and Paul Guerino and Alison Laffan and Erin Ewald
• Companies: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and NORC at the University of Chicago and NORC at the University of Chicago
• Keywords: Transgender ; LGBT ; adminsitrative ; Medicare ; claims ; minority health

Abstract

In its 2011 report, "The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding," the Institute of Medicine recommended the expansion of research methods yielding data to inform decisions about LGBT health. Data on the health and well-being of the transgender population continues to be limited. However, using claims data we can identify transgender Medicare beneficiaries (TMBs) with high confidence. Now we are able to report TMB demographics like race/ethnicity, Medicare entitlement, and age along with corresponding demographics for cisgender Medicare beneficiaries (CMBs). Then we are able to more deeply explore differences between chronic condition profile for each population by how they entered the Medicare system, either through a qualifying disability or by aging into the system. By describing the TMB population and providing comparisons of chronic disease burden between TMBs and CMBs, this research provides part of the foundation for national-level TMB health disparity research.