NB22-14: Identifying Trends and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare Utilization, Access, and Health Outcomes Among SSI Recipients

For many Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients, enrollment in Medicaid offers an opportunity to properly manage their medical conditions and associated comorbidities through regular access to primary and specialty care. Among such high-need, high-cost populations, regular access to care has been shown to improve health and reduce down-stream spending. Further, managing health conditions may allow SSI recipients to recover their ability to work. At the same time, significant disparities in healthcare access and utilization between racial/ethnic minority and non-minority populations have been well-documented, leading to disparities in health status. However, little is known about the extent of these disparities among SSI recipients, nor of how they utilize and access care in general. This gap represents a substantial limitation for policymakers and providers who seek strategies to promote health equity and workforce re-entry among SSI recipients.
I propose to fill in this gap by using Medicaid administrative claims data to document trends in healthcare access, utilization, and health outcomes among this population, with a particular focus on differences in trends among racial/ethnic minorities as compared to non-minority SSI recipients, as well as other Medicaid enrollees more broadly. These data also contain indicators for SSI receipt, as well as demographic information on Medicaid enrollees, such as race/ethnicity.