Medical Expenditure Panel Survey

The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), is an ongoing study conducted in the United States that collects data on health care utilization and costs and insurance coverage. It consists of four separate components: the Household Component (HC), the Nursing Home Component (NHC), the Medical Provider Component (MPC), and the Insurance Component.

The MEPS HC is a nationally representative survey of the U.S. civilian, noninstitutionalized population, using a sampling frame drawn from the previous year's National Health Interview Study sampling [Page 665]frame. The HC, which has been conducted continuously since 1966, collects data on all members of a sampled household or family from a single member of the household and uses an overlapping panel design so that data are collected from each participating family or household for 2 years. Topics covered by the HC include family demographics; health conditions; health status; health care utilization, including physician visits, hospital utilization including inpatients care and visits to the Emergency Department and Outpatient Department, dental care, home health care, use of prescription and over-the-counter medications; health care expenditures; health insurance coverage; and household income and assets.

The MPC of the MEPS is a survey conducted with providers and facilities that provided health care to individuals included in the HC; this includes hospitals, physicians, and medical providers working under their supervision; home health care agencies; and long-term care institutions. Data collected by the MPC are used to verify and supplement data collected in the HC about charges, payments, and sources of payment for health services and are used to estimate the expenses of people enrolled in managed care plans; MPC data are not released as a stand-alone file. Collection of MPC data requires that the HC respondents give their consent to have MEPS contact their care providers, so not all providers of care to HC respondents are included, and the MPC sample for this reason is not nationally representative.

The IC, which collects data on employer-based health insurance, has been conducted annually since 1996. IC data were originally collected from two different samples, the household sample and the list sample. The household sample was originally selected from the insurance providers (unions and insurance companies) and employers of respondents to the previous year's HC: These providers and employers acted as proxy respondents who provided insurance information for the HC respondents. The data collected were then attached to the respondent's HC record. The definition of who was included in the household sample has changed several times, and this survey is no longer conducted: Data were collected in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2002. The list sample collects information from a nationally representative sample of workplaces about the types and costs of health insurance offered through employers, including governments.

The NHC was conducted in 1996 only on a nationally representative sample of nursing homes and residents of nursing homes. Data collected about the facilities include structure (e.g., if it was part of a hospital or retirement center), ownership, staffing, number of beds, number of residents, and type and size of special care units. Data collected from residents include demographics, insurance coverage, health status, and medical conditions.

...