title: Identification of American Indian and Alaska Native veterans in administrative data of the Veterans Health Administration and the Indian Health Service.
abstract: We sought to determine the extent to which the Indian Health Service (IHS) identified enrollees who also use the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) as veterans. We used a bivariate analysis of administrative data from fiscal years 2002-2003 to study the target population. Of the 32259 IHS enrollees who received care as veterans in the VHA, only 44% were identified by IHS as veterans. IHS data underestimates the number of veterans, and both IHS and VHA need mechanisms to recognize mutual beneficiaries in order to facilitate better coordination of strategic planning and resource sharing among federal health care agencies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, and the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 91343, USA. josea.kramer@va.gov
authors.forename: B Josea
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.forename: Mingming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Tuyen
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hoang
authors.forename: Judith O
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Harker
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Finke
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Saliba
mesh_terms: D003625:Data Collection; D016208:Databases, Factual / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006285:Health Planning; D006801:Humans; D012943:Social Security / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016549:United States Indian Health Service / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014728:Veterans / Q000145:classification* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*