Validating Household Reports of Health Care Use in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey

Abstract

Household respondents in the validation sample accurately report inpatient hospitalizations but underreport ED and office visits. Behavioral analyses are largely unaffected because underreporting cuts across all sociodemographic groups.

Change in Medical Spending Attributable to Diabetes: National Data From 1987 to 2011

“…Unfortunately, clinical biomarkers are not available in the data, which prevented us from further examining the effects of the changes. Second, as with other medical spending survey data, respondents in the MEPS and NMES tend to under-report ER and office visits (by 19-30%) (31). It may have led to an underestimation of the spending on the two medical services, and therefore of the total medical spending.…”

“…It may have led to an underestimation of the spending on the two medical services, and therefore of the total medical spending. However, it is unlikely that it would affect the trend since the underreporting has been found to be consistent across times and surveys (31). Third, the number of prescription medication encounters collected in the MEPS and NMES reflects the quantity of medication purchases, but does not measure the dosage of medication prescribed or the length of supply, which might provide a better description of medication use.…”

Current and Projected Characteristics and Unique Health Care Needs of the Patient Population Served by the Department of Veterans Affairs

“…This is consistent with findings by Muggah et al (2013), who found that estimated prevalence of health care conditions based on self-report tended to be lower than estimates based on administrative health records. In contrast, a study by Zuvekas and Olin (2009) found close agreement between survey-reported utilization from MEPS and Medicare claims data among Medicare-enrolled respondents. Inconsistencies between self-report and medical records were more likely for men and patients with less education (Okura et al, 2004;Singh, 2009).…”

Changes In US Spending On Mental Health And Substance Abuse Treatment, 1986–2005, And Implications For Policy

“…That survey covers only the noninstitutionalized population, and it also underreports high-cost cases, emergency department visits, and physician office visits. [1][2][3] A key strength of SAMHSA's effort is the use of consistent and comprehensive methods to track trends over almost twenty years. A more detailed description of the methods is available elsewhere.…”