Description:
Prescription drugs are a large portion of health care expenditures and are defined as those drugs which are ordered by a physician or other authorized medical personnel through written or verbal prescription for a pharmacist to fill for the patient. MEPS collects information from survey participants about their prescription drugs and then are asked for permission to collect more detailed information from their pharmacies. At the pharmacies, data are collected on the type, dosage, and payment for each filled prescription. No information is collected for over-the-counter medications. Prescribed drug expenditures in MEPS are defined as the sum of payments for care received, including out of pocket payments and payments made by private insurance, Medicaid, Medicare and other sources. The Prescribed Medicines Files are available as part of the
event-level files. Information summarized to the person-level is available on the full-year consolidated files under the
Household Full Year Files.
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