MEPS
Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
Pharmacy Participants’ Corner
Pharmacy FAQs
1. Why should pharmacies participate?
2. How are pharmacies chosen for the MEPS
Pharmacy Component?
3. Why didn’t you get all of the
information needed from the customer? Why collect
information from the pharmacies?
4. How are pharmacies contacted?
5. What specific information is needed from the
pharmacies?
6. What if not all of the requested information
is available?
7. How long does it take a pharmacy to supply the
information that you need?
8. Will pharmacies be compensated for providing
this information?
9. Will a pharmacy be contacted more than
once?
1. Why should pharmacies participate?
Your participation contributes to an important effort
to develop an accurate and comprehensive picture of
health care expenditures in the United States.
Prescription medicines are a major and increasing
component of total health care costs. For private
planning as well as public policy decisions, we all
benefit from having accurate information available to
inform our deliberations. By signing the MEPS
Authorization Form, your customers have asked you to
share their data with the study.
2. How are pharmacies chosen for the MEPS
Pharmacy Component?
Pharmacies are identified by participants in the MEPS
Household Component as sources of prescribed drugs.
These household participants have signed
HIPAA-compliant authorization forms authorizing and
requesting each of their pharmacies to release the
information sought by the study.
3. Why didn’t you get all of the
information needed from the customer? Why
collect information from the pharmacies?
It is often difficult for people to provide complete
information about their prescriptions. Most do not
know the NDC numbers for their prescriptions and some
have difficulty giving the full name of a medicine or
its strength. Many do not know the amounts paid on
their behalf by third parties. We contact pharmacies
for information that supplements and verifies what the
household participants have reported.
4. How are pharmacies contacted?
Most pharmacies are initially contacted by telephone.
However, a majority use an electronic approach to
provide the information requested. Pharmacies
typically send in a computerized summary of
medications prescribed for the respondent.
5. What specific information is needed from
the pharmacies?
The study collects information about all the
prescriptions that a customer had filled or refilled
during a specified calendar year. For each
prescription, we ask for the NDC, date filled or
refilled, quantity dispensed, the amount paid by the
patient, and the amount paid by any third party
payers. We also ask for the types of third party
payers, if they are available.
6. What if not all of the requested
information is available?
We have found that most providers have in their
records the data items that we are requesting.
However, MEPS has been designed to contend with
missing data items and the study will utilize as much
of the requested data as you can provide.
7. How long does it take a pharmacy to supply
the information that you need?
For each pharmacy, the time depends on the number of
customers who participate in MEPS and the number of
prescriptions they obtained. We work with the pharmacy
staff to find the most time effective way to gather
the data. Many pharmacies print out the customer
profiles and fax them to us. If a pharmacy has one or
two customers who participate in MEPS, it can be
faster and easier to give the information over the
telephone. For pharmacies with many customers who
participate in MEPS, we can provide a customer list in
electronic format and accept data returned in
electronic format as well. On average, it usually
takes about 5 minutes per patient.
8. Will pharmacies be compensated for
providing this information?
Although compensation is typically not provided to
medical provider participants, the study will
reimburse reasonable charges for staff time spent
responding to our request and/or for copying and
mailing costs.
9. Will a pharmacy be contacted more than
once?
It is possible that a pharmacy will be contacted more
than once to clarify a response and/or to ask about
other MEPS respondents/patients. Because MEPS is a
continuous on-going survey where participants are in
the study for about 2 years and each year brings in a
new sample of participants, a pharmacy may also be
contacted again in future years if it is identified as
a continued source of prescribed drugs by current MEPS
household participants or identified as a source of
prescribed drugs by new MEPS household participants.
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