38 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS)
38.3 Description
- Large-scale surveys of families and individuals, their medical providers, and employers across US capturing data on cost and use of health care and health insurance.
- Two major components: household component (all members of selected households), containing demographics, health conditions, health status, use of medical services, charges and sources of payments, access to care, satisfaction with care, health insurance coverage, income, and employment; and insurance component (selected private and public sector employers), containing number and types of plans offered, premiums, contributions by employers and employees, eligibility requirements, benefits associated with plans, and employer characteristics.
- Also has a medical provider component covering hospitals, physicians, home health care providers and pharmacies to supplement information received through the household component.
38.6 Collection Methodology
- Household component involves nationally representative subsample of households that participated in prior year National Health Interview Survey
- New panel is selected year; each panel is followed for two years and interviewed 5 times
- Use computer assisted, personal interviewing
38.7 Available at
https://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files.jsp
38.8 User Guide/Data Dictionary
https://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/survey_comp/survey_questionnaires.jsp