Analysis Group Study Finds Highest Prevalence of Disease in Medicaid and Uninsured Populations

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new study published in the November issue of Psychological Medicine was the first of its kind to use administrative claims databases to track the annual prevalence of diagnosed schizophrenia in the United States.

Analysis Group, a leading economic consulting firm, co-authored the study alongside researchers from Tulane University, University of Arkansas School for Medical Sciences and Harvard Medical School. Leading the Analysis Group team were Dr. Eric Q. Wu and Vice President Howard Birnbaum.

The researchers analyzed data from several insurance administrative databases, including those from private insurers, the California Medicaid (Medi-Cal) program, and the Veteran’s Administration, among others. They estimate that in 2002, the prevalence of diagnosed schizophrenia in the United States reached 1.5 million.

“Surprisingly, very little is known about the annual prevalence of this debilitating disease,” said Ronald Kessler, Ph.D., Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. “The difficulty researchers face in measuring the prevalence of it is the fact that so many of the people affected are hard to count – many are homeless, unemployed, etc.”

The study found that diagnosed schizophrenia had the highest estimated prevalence in the Medicaid population; the uninsured population came in close second.

The researchers note an enormous lack of prevalence data for a number of other diseases and chronic illnesses in the United States. “Our hope is that the unique methodology we came up with has far-reaching applicability, especially in diseases where it is difficult to measure prevalence rates using traditional epidemiology methods,” said Dr. Wu. “For disease states that are unaccounted for in existing epidemiology databases, our insurance administrative data analysis method provides an alternative that can help to help close this gap.”

Funding for this study was through Analysis Group internal research and development.

Analysis Group, Inc. (www.analysisgroup.com) has provided economic, financial, and business strategy consulting to law firms, corporations, and government agencies for 25 years. The firm has more than 350 professionals, with offices in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Menlo Park, New York, San Francisco, Washington, and Montreal.

Contacts
Analysis Group
Kayla Zerby, 202-274-4765
kzerby@hellermanbaretz.com

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