Using Medicare databases for outcomes research in rehabilitation medicine

With the advent of computerized billing for healthcare services, claims dat a have become useful in academic medicine. One of the largest suppliers of these types of data is Medicare, the US Government's healthcare insurance o rganization for the elderly and disabled. Because Medicare patients often r equire rehabilitation, this type of data can be useful in rehabilitation ou tcomes studies. Despite several significant limitations to Medicare billing data, Medicare claims data are powerful tools with which to analyze concep ts in physical medicine and rehabilitation.