Does health status explain higher Medicare costs of Medicaid enrollees?

In this article, the authors present findings on differences in Medicare costs between elderly beneficiaries who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid and other Medicare beneficiaries. Data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) were used in the analysis. After controlling for health and functional-status differences, the higher Medicare costs of dual eligible persons, relative to other enrollees, was reduced from 282 percent to 45 percent.