Databases - MEPS
What is MEPS?
The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, or MEPS as it is commonly called, is the third (and most recent) in a series of national probability surveys
conducted by AHRQ on the financing and utilization of medical care in the United States.
MEPS is designed to help understand how the dramatic growth of managed care, changes in private health insurance, and other dynamics of today's market-driven health care delivery system have affected, and are likely to affect, the kinds, amounts, and costs of health care that Americans use.
MEPS also is necessary for projecting who benefits from, and who bears the cost of, changes to existing health policy and the creation of new policies.
MEPS Overview
MEPS provides answers to hundreds of questions, including:
- How health care use and spending vary among different sectors of the population, such as the elderly, veterans, children, disabled persons, minorities, the poor, and the uninsured.
- How the health insurance of households varies by demographics, employment status and characteristics, geographic locale, and other factors
- Questions about private health insurance costs and coverage, such as how employers' costs vary by region.
Useful MEPS Links
Recent Related Journal Articles
- The Concentration Of Health Care Expenditures, Revisited
Health Aff (Millwood). 2001 Mar-Apr;20(2):9-18. - The convergence of vulnerable characteristics and health insurance in the US
Soc Sci Med. 2001 Aug;53(4):519-29. - Preventive Services Among Medicare Beneficiaries With Supplemental Coverage Versus HMO Enrollees, Medicaid Recipients, and Elders With No Additional Coverage
Med Care. 2001 Jun;39(6):616-26.
For further information on the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, contact:
Project Director
Center for Cost and Financing Studies
Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
2101 East Jefferson Street, Suite 500
Rockville, MD 20852
Telephone: (301) 594-1400
E-mail:mepspd@ahrq.gov
For more information:
MEPSnet
101 S. Newell Drive
Gainesville, FL 32611
Phone: 352.273.6268 Fax: 352.273.6270
Please refer questions and comments regarding the website to: webmaster@cop.ufl.edu