Each MEPS-HC interview consists of sections covering specific topics. Each section contains a series of CAPI (computer-assisted personal interview) computer screens with questions, interviewing instructions, and skip patterns based on the specific topics. Major changes to sections are made by calendar year, and data released on full-year files are based on the questions being asked during that year (regardless of panel).
For more information on the Household Component questionnaire sections, go to Summary of HC Questionnaire Sections and MEPS-HC Panel Design and Data Collection Process.
The F1 Help Text Key is the collection of terms used during the course of the MEPS-HC CAPI. MEPS interviewers use this help text to define terms or to clarify certain parts of a question for household members while administering the interview. These terms and their definitions are accessible to the interviewer via the F1 function key. To access terms used in data year 2024, please refer to the 2024 Help Text Groupings or 2024 Help Text. The 2024 Help Text Groupings file contains a list of each help tag, the associated item number, item tag, and question name. It is sorted by Help Tag so that multiple items using that same help text are displayed together. The Item Tag is the item number referenced in the individual CAPI questionnaire sections. The 2024 Help Text file contains the content of the help text available and is sorted by the Help Tag.
MEPS-HC is a panel survey conducted over five rounds of data collection periods. Not all of the questionnaire sections are included in each round; some are periodically rotated in and out of the survey.
For each interview, the questionnaire flow varies slightly. Go to Questionnaire context/flow for the context/flow detailed specifications for each panel, information on the specific order in which sections were asked during each interview, and for an example of how to reconstruct the structure of an interview for a particular panel and round.
MEPS periodically fields self-administered questionnaires (paper and web) to supplement the data collected by interviewers. These questionnaires are asked only from adults and are available in both English and Spanish, unless otherwise noted.
Self-Administered Questionnaire (SAQ) has been collected every other year (odd years) since 2018. Previously this was collected every year from 2000-2017. The questions include a variety of health status and healthcare quality measures, taken from the health plan version of CAHPS®, an AHRQ-sponsored family of survey instruments designed to measure quality of care from the consumer's perspective. This questionnaire contains three measures of health status: the Veteran's RAND 12-item (VR-12) (in 2017 this replaces the Short-Form 12 Version 2 (SF-12v2®)), the Kessler Index (K6) of non-specific psychological distress, and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2).
The Preventive Care Self-Administered Questionnaire (PSAQ). This PSAQ has been fielded every other (even years) since 2018. There are separate versions of the questionnaire for males and females to account for certain preventive care questions. In 2020, the PSAQ was further modified to include supplemental items on both versions on alcohol and drug use, as well as items on mental health counseling and treatment. Previously, another one-time version of PSAQ was administered in 2014.
The Cancer Self-Administered Questionnaire (CSAQ) was fielded in 2011, 2016, 2017 and 2024. The questionnaire was administered to current cancer patients and cancer survivors identified in the main Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. The CSAQ asked questions about the burden of cancer, medical care for cancer, long lasting effects of the disease, financial impact, and employment outcomes for cancer survivors and their families.
Burdens and Economic Impacts of Medical Care Questionnaire (ESAQ) was administered in 2024. ESAQ collected a variety of items on the economic burdens of seeking and receiving health care specifically about affordability and access, time costs of getting care and administrative hassles, lost work productivity due to presenteeism, lost productivity in non-market activities, and time costs of informal care.
The Diabetes Care Survey (DCS) was fielded from 2000-2022 to the adults who self-identified as having diabetes, in response to a question in the priority conditions section. The questions in this survey asked about having a hemoglobin A1c blood test, feet checked for sores, special eye exams and the ways in which the person is taking care of their diabetes.
Social and Health Experiences (SHE) was administered one time in 2021 and asked questions about the Social and Health Experiences. The questions included topics such as general life satisfaction, housing quality, neighborhood characteristics, measures of financial strain, stress, food security, physical activity, transportation issues, measures of social connectedness, measures of loneliness, experiences of discrimination, experiences of physical and social violence, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
Veterans' Self-Administered Questionnaire (VSAQ): This questionnaire was fielded in 2018 and 2019 and asked questions regarding understanding Veterans' health care needs. The questions included topics such as highly prevalent medical conditions among Veterans such as PTSD and COPD, in addition to questions about medical services (prosthesis, rehabilitation services, individual and group mental health care, caregiver support and assistive mobility devices), and Veterans' perception of care received in and outside the VA including care received from primary doctors as well as specialists. This questionnaire is only available in English.
Parent Administered Questionnaire (PAQ). The PAQ was administered to parents of children under 18 years of age. The PAQ was fielded only in 2000. The questionnaire included questions from the Consumer Assessment of Health Plans (CAHPS®) and the Living with Illness Measure (LWIM).
HC Interview Showcards
During the household interview, the showcards assist MEPS respondents by providing them with
paper versions of definitions or response categories that pertain to specific questionnaire
items throughout the computer-assisted personal interview, or CAPI.
Medical Provider Component (MPC) Questionnaires
MEPS also includes a Medical Provider Component (MPC) that requests data from 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 about
the health care that was provided to sampled household members in the course of the survey year.
The MPC Questionnaires are designed to obtain information on both the medical and financial characteristics
of medical events. Beginning in 2009, the paper-based system for collecting data was replaced with a
computer-based Integrated Data Collection System (IDCS) that allows for data collection specialists
to gather data through either telephone or through hardcopy record abstraction directly into one
central database. The most current data years of the MPC questionnaires are available below.
MPC Questionnaires from previous data years are available upon request to the MEPS project director
at mepspd@ahrq.gov.
MPC Contact Guides
Beginning in 2019, AHRQ consolidated the individual MPC Contact Guides for each provider type into one
cohesive file for all providers.
The MPC Contact Guides for hospitals, physicians, home health care providers, and pharmacies each contain
a script that guides the data collection specialist through an explanation of the MEPS MPC, its purpose,
and the data we would like to collect. The guide also obtains contact information for data collection itself
after patient authorization forms have been sent to the provider. The most current data year of the contact
guides are available below. Contact guides from previous data years are available upon request to the MEPS
project director at mepspd@ahrq.gov.
MPC Authorization Forms
The MPC Authorization Forms, signed by patients interviewed by MEPS, permit the Medical
Provider Component staff to contact medical providers and pharmacies and authorize
providers to release medical information about their patients. The most
current data years of the authorization forms are available below. Please note
that the Spanish authorization forms are for Spanish-speaking respondents to read;
they sign the English forms.
MPC Authorization
Forms from previous data years are available upon request to the MEPS
project director at mepspd@ahrq.gov.
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