Grant #: U01
PI Name: Smith-Bindman R
Title: The Sensitivity of Medicare Billing Claims for Monitoring
Mammography use by Elderly Women
Institute: National Cancer Institute
Using prospectively collected data from the San Francisco, New Mexico, and Washington
State Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC) registries, linked with data from
SEER-Medicare for the same geographical regions from 1992–1996, the investigators will assess whether
Medicare physician claims can be used to accurately distinguish screening from diagnostic
mammography among 4140 elderly women with breast cancer. Specifically, they will:
- Compare the accuracy of an algorithm developed from Medicare claims for
distinguishing whether mammography is obtained for screening or diagnostic purposes by
comparing the algorithm's classification of type of examination with the corresponding
information from three BCSC mammography registries.
- If the algorithm for differentiating type of mammographic examination based on the
SEER-Medicare data is valid, i.e. at least 90% accurate, the SEER-Medicare database will
be used to evaluate screening utilization among Medicare recipients, and will evaluate how
utilization varies by age and racial/ethnic group.
- If the algorithm for differentiating type of mammographic examination based on the
SEER-Medicare data is valid, i.e. at least 90% accurate, the SEER-Medicare database will
be used to evaluate differences in breast cancer tumor attributes including size and
stage, and differences in breast cancer treatment rates including mastectomy, lumpectomy
and radiation between women who undergo routing screening mammography and women who do
not.
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