Research Methodology
SDI, Plymouth Meeting, PA, a leading provider of innovative health care data products and analytic services, is the source for data contained in this Digest.
HMO and hospital utilization data, gathered from state health licensing agencies, federal government sources and telephone or mail surveys, are effective as of December 31, 2008. Integrated systems, identified using local and national periodicals, trade publications and provider contacts, were contacted by mail and telephone to verify data. Information on integrated systems was gathered during 2009 and is effective as of July 2009. Patient-level, chronic disease-specific claims data derive from the Managed Care Digest Series Local Trends Summary™ (LTS) database. SDI also provided national data about medical group practices with five or more full-time-equivalent (FTE) physicians from its Medical Group Practice Database, which contains data on more than 37,000 practices nationwide. Data are effective as of July 2009.
Hospital Inpatient
The SDI Hospital Procedure/Diagnosis (HPD) Database contains an extensive set of hospital inpatient discharge records, including actual diagnoses and procedures data for about 75% of all discharges nationwide (including 100% of Medicare-reimbursed discharges). The HPD inpatient database reports the numbers of procedures performed on patients discharged from a hospital. Most states report at least nine diagnostic and six procedure codes from each discharge record. SDI uses Medicare procedure counts and additional hospital-level information to estimate procedure counts for the remaining 25% of discharges–the non– Medicare hospital discharge information in non-reporting states. The hospital inpatient data provided in this Digest are current as of end-of-year 2008.