Use of Claims Data to Screen for Functional Limitations Among Medicare Beneficiaries
This paper describes the development of a survey-based index of functional limitations and a new claims-based model for predicting limitations.
Megan Mathews is a senior statistical analyst at RAND. Her research focuses on the development, evaluation, and implementation of the health care quality measurement program, patient experience assessments, disparities, and the Medicare population. She utilizes survey methodology to design and implement sampling procedures as well as analyze complex data using techniques such as sampling weights, case-mix adjustment, non-response, and response rate analyses. She uses statistical techniques such as propensity scoring and matching, multi-level, mixed, and survival modeling methods, to draw inferences between care processes, outcomes, and social determinants of health. She provides analytic leadership on large-scale sampling and national scoring tasks that inform public reporting and pay-for-performance initiatives, ensuring methodological rigor, reproducibility, and meaningful dissemination of results.
Before joining RAND, she worked as a data research analyst in the workers’ compensation insurance industry, where she applied predictive analytics to improve claims handling and evaluate operational performance. She also held a research position at the Office of Immigration Statistics in the Department of Homeland Security and a graduate fellow internship at the National Institutes of Health. She holds a Master of Applied Statistics and a Bachelor of Science in statistics from Pennsylvania State University.
Education
M.S. in applied statistics, Pennsylvania State University; B.S. in statistics, Pennsylvania State University
Selected Work
- DeYoreo M, Mathews M, Rutter C, Bogart A, Reid R, Elliott, MN, "Do Localized Disasters Impact Clinical Measures of Health Care Quality?" American Journal of Managed Care, 31(2), 2025
- Mathews M, Beckett MK, Martino SC, Brown JA, Orr N, Gaillot S, Elliott MN, "Medicare Advantage enrollees' reports of unfair treatment during health care encounters," Health Affairs Scholar, 2(5), 2024
- Haviland AM, Mathews M, Martino SC, Overton Y, Dembosky JW, Maksut J, Elliott MN, "Comparing HEDIS performance of Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans with other coverage types for dually eligible people," Health Affairs Scholar, 2(4), 2024
- Mathews M. Parast L., Elliott MN, Williamson S, Joestl S, Stark D, Lehrman WG, Becker K, "What paradata can tell us beyond response rates: exploring device use and push-to-web access methods in a survey of emergency department patients," Survey Practice, 16(1), 2023
- Martino SC, Mathews M, Beckett MK, Agniel D, Hambarsoomian K, Hudson Scholle S, Collins S, Hwee T, Darabidian B, Elliott MN, "Development of a Medicare Plan Dashboard to Promote Health Equity," American Journal of Managed Care, 29(3), 2023
- Mathews M, Parast L, Elliott MN, Lehrman WG, Stark D, and Waxman, DA, "Associations between Emergency Severity Index and patient experience of care in the emergency department," Academic Emergency Medicine , 30(1), 2023
- Mathews M, Agniel D, Elliott MN, Martino SC, Guerino P, Orr N, Ng JH, Beckett MK, "Development of a Patient-Reported Functional Limitations Index," American Journal of Managed Care, 26(7), 2020
- Mathews M, Parast L, Tolpadi A, Marc MN, Flow-Delwiche L, Becker K, "Methods for Improving Response Rates in an Emergency Department Setting - A Randomized Feasibility Study," Survey Practice, 12(1), 2019