Linked data analysis of dually eligible beneficiaries in New England.

Analysis of linked Medicare/Medicaid data files from four New England States (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire) confirm that dually eligible beneficiaries used a disproportionate amount of both Medicare and Medicaid resources in 1995, driven largely by the significant subset of the population that used institutional long-term care (LTC). If the States and the Federal Government are successful in developing approaches to dually eligible beneficiaries that reduce the use of institutional LTC, overall public costs per person could decline while Federal costs remained constant, and beneficiaries could have a greater selection of community-based options and experience greater satisfaction.