Affiliations: [a] Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends (CFACT),
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 540 Gaither Road John M. Eisenberg
Building, Rockville, MD, USA
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Steven B. Cohen, Ph.D.,
Director, Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends (CFACT), Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality, 540 Gaither Road, John M. Eisenberg Building,
Rockville, MD 20850, USA. Tel.: +1 301 427 1466; E-mail:
[email protected]
Abstract: The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) is one of the core health care
surveys that are a primary source for essential national healthcare utilization
estimates. In 2007, the survey experienced two dominant survey design
modifications: a new sample design attributable to the sample redesign of the
National Health Interview Survey, and an upgrade to the Computer Assisted
Personal Interview (CAPI) platform for the survey instrument, moving from a DOS
to a Windows based environment. This study examines the impact of these survey
design modifications on the national health care utilization estimates.
Particular attention is given to assessing the level of convergence in
utilization estimates based on the alternative designs as well as the alignment
of model based analyses that discern which factors are associated with health
care use. The paper concludes with a discussion of strategies that may yield
additional improvements in the accuracy for these policy relevant survey
estimates.
Keywords: Health care utilization, survey redesign, MEPS
