Claims data have become common during the past two decades. The electronic records include information entered on bills (claims) submitted by healthcare providers to third-party payers. They are an attractive data source; however, they contain limitations that threaten the validity of studies that use them. We reviewed 168 studies that employed claims data, published during 2000-2005 in five healthcare journals, to investigate how claims data are being used and whether their use is appropriate.

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... Healthcare studies in our sample used claims data to select a sample, to establish healthcare costs, to determine whether specific treatments or procedures had been provided, to ascertain the costeffectiveness of services, and to establish their accuracy as a stand-in for other measures. Most studies appropriately used claims data; however, there was a sizable percentage that used claims data in an inappropriate or questionable fashion.