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MEPS
Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
Medical Provider Component
Text version of video Flash introduction (40
slides). Provides an overview of MEPS-MPC and discusses the government
agencies sponsoring the study.
Slide #1 - Music.
Slide #2 - Music.
Slide #3 - The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, or MEPS, is a principal
source of information about how people in the United States receive and
pay for health care.
Slide #4 - MEPS information is drawn from two main sources: a nationally
representative group of households who are interviewed each year in the
MEPS Household Component,
Slide #5 - and medical providers and pharmacies identified by these
households, who are contacted in the MEPS Medical Provider Component.
This video is an introduction to the MEPS Medical Provider Component, or
MPC.
Slide #6 - MEPS is sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality, or AHRQ,
Slide #7 - and cosponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, or CDC.
Slide #8 - Both agencies are part of the U.S. Public Health Service.
Slide #9 - The Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality is Dr. Carolyn Clancy. She and her staff manage the project and
disseminate MEPS data to users across the country. AHRQ's mission is to
improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of healthcare
for all Americans. The agency sponsors research on a wide range of
topics, but with a common set of goals.
Slide #10 - This research seeks to:
- Identify the most effective ways to organize, manage, finance, and deliver high-quality health care;
- Reduce medical errors; and
- Improve patient safety.
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Slide #11 - Within this broader mission, the Medical Expenditure Panel
Survey – MEPS – focuses specifically on the use, cost, quality, and
access to health care in the United States.
Slide #12 - Each year since 1996 MEPS has interviewed a cross-section of
the American public, collecting detailed information on their health and
medical care.
Slide #13 - Each year MEPS also collects information directly from
hospitals, physicians, home health agencies, and pharmacies.
Slide #14 - These providers are contacted by telephone in the MEPS
Medical Provider Component, or MPC.
Slide #15 - Through its unique design, MEPS is able to link data from
households and their health care providers to create a rich and
comprehensive picture of how people use and pay for health care in
America.
Slide #16 - Each of the providers contacted for the MPC was identified
by a survey participant who voluntarily signed a HIPAA compliant
authorization form.
Slide #17 - The signed forms authorize and request providers to release
information about their care to the study.
Slide #18 - Each authorization form is signed and dated by the person,
parent, guardian, or HIPAA acceptable substitute, who received medical
care or prescription drugs.
Slide #19 - Hospitals, physicians, and home health agencies contacted
for the MPC are asked to supply information from their records about the
care they provided to the household participants for a specific calendar
year.
Slide #20 - They are asked for dates of service, diagnoses, services
provided, charges, and payments – details that household participants
often cannot report.
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Slide #21 - Providers can respond to the study request by giving
information by telephone or by sending in copies of records.
Slide #22 - Pharmacies are asked to report on prescription medicines
dispensed to the survey participants for a specific calendar year.
Slide #23 - They are asked for date filled, NDC code, quantity
dispensed, and payment sources and amounts. Pharmacies contacted for the
study most frequently respond by providing copies of printed ‘patient
profiles’ for their customers who are participating in the study.
Slide #24 - When convenient for a pharmacy, the data can be submitted by
disk or CD.
Slide #25 - Westat, a nationally known survey research organization with
headquarters in the Washington, D.C. area, collects the MEPS data under
contract with the U.S. Public Health Service.
Slide #26 - MEPS is authorized by the Public Health Service Act, which
mandates that the information collected for the study be used only for
research purposes.
Slide #27 - The law also prohibits the release of any information
collected in the study that might identify a participating individual or
establishment without the consent of the individual or establishment.
Before any MEPS data are released to the public, identifying information
such as names, addresses, or telephone numbers are removed from the data
files.
Slide #28 - Data items such as health conditions or prescription
medicines are edited to avoid inadvertent disclosure through the
presence of rare characteristics.
Slide #29 - Each year, MEPS data provide national estimates of how
frequently people in the United States use different kinds of health
care services and what is paid for those services.
Slide #30 - Information from the study contributes to discussion of
important health policy issues and to the evaluation of alternative
ideas for improving the health care system.
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Slide #31 - Annual MEPS data allow researchers to study how the changes
and trends in health care that occur over time affect individuals and
families.
Slide #32 - MEPS data are used by a wide variety of people in both the
private and public sectors.
Slide #33 - Hospitals, health care planners, and Federal, state, and
local governments use MEPS data.
Slide #34 - Important findings from the study are published in journals
and as separate reports. (Many are available on this website -
www.meps.ahrq.gov.)
Slide #35 - What kinds of questions does MEPS address? Here are a few
examples of questions examined with MEPS data: Have practices for
prescribing antibiotics for children changed over time?
Slide #36 -
Antibiotic use by children age 14 years
and under: United States, 1996-2001 |
|
1996 |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
|
39% |
33.7% |
30.6% |
28.9% |
28.6% |
29.0% |
Source: AHRQ, Medical Expenditure
Panel Survey, 1996 - 2001 |
MEPS data tells us from 1996 to 2001, the proportion of children who
used an antibiotic during the year declined from 39 percent to 29 percent.
Slide #37 - Which medical conditions are the most expensive to treat?
Slide #38 -
Expenditures for the five most expensive conditions,
1997 and 2002 (in thousands of 2002 dollars) |
|
|
Heart Conditions |
Cancer |
Trauma |
Mental Disorders |
Pulminary Conditions |
|
2002 |
$67,621 |
$55,423 |
$53,748 |
$36,195 |
$35,272 |
|
1997 |
$70,002 |
$48,425 |
$55,834 |
$47,508 |
$45,263 |
Source: AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel
Survey, 1997 and 2002 |
In terms of health care expenditures, the five most costly chronic diseases and
acute conditions affecting the U.S. community population in 1997 and 2002 included
heart conditions, cancer, trauma, mental disorders, and pulmonary conditions.
Slide #39 -
Total prescription drug expenditures for the
U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population (in billions of dollars) |
|
1996 |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
|
$65.3 |
$72.3 |
$78.0 |
$94.2 |
$103.0 |
$134.1 |
$150.6 |
Source: AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel
Survey, 2002 |
How have expenditures for prescription drugs changed over time?
The total prescription drug expenditures rose more than 130% from 1996
to 2002.
Slide #40 - For much more information about uses of MEPS data, or for
access to MEPS data for your own research, continue to navigate on this
website when the video has ended. Thanks for watching this introduction
to the MEPS Medical Provider Component. If contacted by the study, we
hope that you and your organization will cooperate with us in this
important national research effort. Your participation is vital to the
success of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Thank you.
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