VA and Medicare Health Outcomes for Dually Eligible Veterans

This dataset supports a study comparing health outcomes and spending for veterans aged 65 and older eligible for both VA and Medicare-funded private hospital care. The analysis found the VA reduced 28-day mortality by 4.5 percentage points and 28-day spending by 21%. The specific row count, column count, and data structure are not provided in the input.

Use Cases

• Analyze 28-day mortality rates to compare outcomes between VA and private Medicare-funded hospital care.
• Compare 28-day spending patterns between VA and private healthcare providers for dually eligible veterans.
• Investigate reported service differences between VA and private hospitals as mentioned in the study description.
• Study potential complementarities between continuity of care, health IT, and integrated care systems for veteran populations.

Strengths

• Data underpins a published study with specific findings, including a 46% reduction in 28-day mortality and a 21% reduction in 28-day spending at the VA.
• Focuses on a specific, policy-relevant population: veterans aged 65 and older dually eligible for VA and Medicare care.
• Utilizes the ambulance design methodology from Doyle et al. (2015) for causal inference.

Limitations

• The dataset's size, structure, and specific variables are unknown, limiting assessment of its analytical scope.
• Data is linked to a specific study design and may not be generalizable to other veteran populations or healthcare contexts.
• Recency of the underlying data is unclear, as the study's publication date is not provided.

Provenance

Source

ICPSR Harvested Dataverse, author David Chan.

Collection Method

Data collected for a research study utilizing an ambulance design for causal inference, comparing VA and private Medicare-funded care.

Freshness

The metadata record was last updated on 2026-02-23.

Geography

United States, focusing on the VA and private hospital systems.