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B. Josea Kramer, PhD, Mingming Wang, MPH, Tuyen Hoang, PhD, Judith O. Harker, PhD, Bruce Finke, MD and Debra Saliba, MD, MPH

B. Josea Kramer is with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, and the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles. Mingming Wang and Tuyen Hoang are with the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Center for the Study of Healthcare Provider Behavior, Los Angeles. Judith O. Harker is with the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, Los Angeles. Bruce Finke is with the Indian Health Service, Elder Care Initiative, Northampton, Mass. Debra Saliba is with the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, Los Angeles, and the Center for the Study of Healthcare Provider Behavior, the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, and the RAND Corporation, Los Angeles.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Dr. B. Josea Kramer, GRECC (11E), Veteran Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, 16 111 Plummer St., North Hills, CA 91343 (e-mail: josea.kramer{at}va.gov).

We sought to determine the extent to which the Indian Health Service (IHS) identified enrollees who also use the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) as veterans. We used a bivariate analysis of administrative data from fiscal years 2002–2003 to study the target population. Of the 32259 IHS enrollees who received care as veterans in the VHA, only 44% were identified by IHS as veterans. IHS data underestimates the number of veterans, and both IHS and VHA need mechanisms to recognize mutual beneficiaries in order to facilitate better coordination of strategic planning and resource sharing among federal health care agencies.