Identifying Homeless Medicaid Enrollees Using Enrollment Addresses
研究利用邮寄地址数据设计并验证了一种识别医疗补助参保者中无家可归人群的方法，通过与自我报告数据对比，发现地址指标能有效识别大部分无家可归者，对研究人员和卫生系统有参考价值。
OBJECTIVE: To design and test the validity of a method to identify homelessness among Medicaid enrollees using mailing address data. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Enrollment and claims data on Medicaid expansion enrollees in Hennepin and Ramsey counties who also provided self-reported information on their current housing situation in a psychosocial needs assessment. STUDY DESIGN: Construction of address-based indicators and comparison with self-report data. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Among 1,677 enrollees, 427 (25 percent) self-reported homelessness, of whom 328 (77 percent) had at least one positive address indicator. Depending on the type of addresses included in the indicator, sensitivity to detect self-reported homelessness ranged from 30 to 76 percent and specificity from 79 to 97 percent. CONCLUSIONS: An address-based indicator can identify a large proportion of Medicaid enrollees who are experiencing homelessness. This approach may be of interest to researchers, states, and health systems attempting to identify homeless populations.