DOI: 10.3886/e222581
title: AHRQ: Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Topics

description: from: https://meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/about_meps/survey_back.jsp Survey Background<br>
 
 The
 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, which began in 1996, is a set of 
large-scale surveys of families and individuals, their medical providers
 (doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, etc.), and employers across the United
 States. MEPS collects data on the specific health services that 
Americans use, how frequently they use them, the cost of these services,
 and how they are paid for, as well as data on the cost, scope, and 
breadth of health insurance held by and available to U.S. workers.<br><b><br></b><b>Major MEPS Components</b>
 MEPS currently has two major components:
 the Household Component and the Insurance Component. The Household Component
 provides data from individual households and their members, which is supplemented
 by data from their medical providers. The Insurance
 Component is a separate survey of employers that provides data
 on employer-based health insurance. 
 <b><br></b><b><br></b><b>Household Component</b>
 The Household Component
 (HC) collects data from a sample of families and individuals in 
selected communities across the United States, drawn from a nationally 
representative subsample of households that participated in the prior 
year's National Health Interview Survey (conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics). 
 During the household interviews,
 MEPS collects detailed information for each person in the household on 
the following: demographic characteristics, health conditions, health 
status, use of medical services, charges and source of payments, access 
to care, satisfaction with care, health insurance coverage, income, and 
employment. 
 The panel design of the survey, 
which features several rounds of interviewing covering two full calendar
 years, makes it possible to determine how changes in respondents' 
health status, income, employment, eligibility for public and private 
insurance coverage, use of services, and payment for care are related. 
 The HC expenditures have been 
projected to future years by selected demographic characteristics by 
source of payment and type of service.
 HC data are available on the MEPS Web
 site in data tables, downloadable data files (person, job,
 event, or condition level), annually projected expenditures
 through 2016, and interactive data tools, as well as in publications
 using HC data.<b><br></b><b>Insurance Component</b>
 The Insurance Component
 (IC) collects data from a sample of private and public sector employers
 on the health insurance plans they offer their employees. The survey is
 also known as the Health Insurance Cost Study. 
 The collected data include 
the number and types of private insurance plans offered (if any), 
premiums, contributions by employers and employees, eligibility 
requirements, benefits associated with these plans, and employer 
characteristics. 
 IC estimates are available on 
the MEPS Web site in tabular form for national, regional, state, and 
metropolitan areas, as well as in publications using IC data and 
interactive data tools. IC data files are not available for public 
release.<b><br></b><b>Other MEPS Components</b> 
 MEPS also includes a Medical 
Provider Component (MPC), which covers hospitals, physicians, home 
health care providers, and pharmacies identified by MEPS-HC respondents.
 Its purpose is to supplement and/or replace information received from 
the MEPS-HC respondents. 
 Data files containing only this 
supplemental respondent information are not available, but the 
information is incorporated into the MEPS-HC data files. 
 In 1996 only, MEPS included a Nursing Home Component
 (NHC) that gathered information from a sample of nursing homes and 
residents nationwide on the characteristics of the facilities and 
services offered; expenditures and sources of payment on an individual 
resident level; and resident characteristics, including functional 
limitation, cognitive impairment, age, income, and insurance coverage. 
The NHC also collected data on the availability and use of 
community-based care prior to admission to nursing homes. For reasons of
 confidentiality, NHC data are available only at the Data Center located at AHRQ or at one of the Federal Statistical Research Data Centers.<br><br>The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)
 provides information on the NCHS National Nursing Home Survey (NNHS), a
 continuing series of national sample surveys of nursing homes, their 
residents, and their staff that have been conducted in 1973-74, 1977, 
1985, 1995, 1997, and 1999.<b><br></b><b>Earlier Surveys and MEPS</b>
 Surveys collecting data on medical expenditures
 began in the 1970s at a time when the structure of health care
 services, private insurance, Federal health care programs and
 the characteristics of the U.S. population were undergoing
 enormous change. The first of these surveys, the National Medical
 Care Expenditure Surveys (NMCES), was conducted in 1977. Similar
 to the MEPS-HC survey, NMCES had three main components: a household
 survey, a survey of physicians utilized by the household members,
 and a health insurance employer component. Approximately
 14,000 households participated in six rounds of interviews
 over a 14-month period. 
 In 1987, the National Medical 
Expenditure Survey (NMES) was conducted. Approximately 16,000 households
 participated in NMES, including 2,000 American Indian and Alaskan 
Native households. Once again, the household information was 
supplemented by surveys of medical and health insurance providers 
utilized by respondents. 
 In 1996, the current survey, 
MEPS-HC, was designed to provide more timely information about the 
nation's changing health care system. MEPS-HC introduces a new panel or 
sample of households into the survey every year and is conducted 
continually rather than once every 10 years. MEPS-HC households are a 
subsample of households that participate in the National Health 
Interview Survey (NHIS) conducted by the National Center for Health 
Statistics approximately six months to a year prior to MEPS. Like the 
earlier surveys, the information collected in MEPS-HC from households is
 supplemented by surveys of medical and health insurance providers. 
 The predecessor to the MEPS-IC 
was the 1994 National Employer Health Insurance Survey (NEHIS) conducted
 by the National Center for Health Statistics. NEHIS measured the 
extent, cost, and coverage of employment-based health insurance and was 
the first federal survey designed to produce state and national 
estimates of employer-sponsored health insurance. NEHIS drew extensively
 from two previous employer surveys: the Survey of Health Insurance 
Plans, sponsored by the Health Care Financing Administration (now the 
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) and conducted in the 
1980s, and the 1993 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 10 State Employer 
Health Insurance Survey. 
 In 1996, the MEPS-IC began production of an expanded set of state and national estimates on an annual basis.<br><br><br><br>