This Center for Health Care Strategies Inc. (CHSC) report, funded by Kaiser Permanente, used pharmacy claims to supplement a 2007 report in order to better analyze Medicaid’s high-cost and high-need populations.  The addition of pharmacy data revealed that the proportion of disabled beneficiaries diagnosed with three or more chronic conditions is 45 percent rather than 35 percent, as was previously estimated, and that the frequency of psychiatric illness among disabled beneficiaries is 49 percent rather than 29 percent. 

From the introduction:

This third edition of the Faces of Medicaid (Faces of Medicaid III) was commissioned by CHCS to provide a more comprehensive view of beneficiaries with multiple chronic conditions, particularly those with serious mental illness. It builds on the earlier Faces of Medicaid II analysis published in 2007, which sought to answer two key questions: (1) what is the prevalence of chronic conditions within the Medicaid population; and (2) are there patterns or clusterings of these conditions that could inform the development of more appropriate guidelines, care models, performance measurement systems, and reimbursement methodologies.   This new edition examines two powerful new data sources — one year of pharmacy claims and five years of diagnostic data — to further refine the portrait of Medicaid beneficiaries. 

Full report: The Faces of Medicaid III: Refining the Portrait of People with Multiple Chronic Conditions (PDF | 365.76 KB)

Center for Health Care Strategies, Inc. (2009). The faces of Medicaid III: refining the portrait of people with multiple chronic conditions. Kronick, R.; Bella, M; Gilmer, T.P.