Diagnosis, Condition, and Procedure Codes. The medical conditions and procedures reported by the Household Component respondent were recorded by the interviewer as verbatim text, which was then coded by professional coders to fully-specified ICD-9-CM codes, including medical condition and V codes (see Health Care Financing Administration, 1980). Although codes were verified and error rates did not exceed
Diagnosis, Condition, and Procedure Codes. The medical conditions and procedures reported by the Household Component respondent were recorded by the interviewer as verbatim text, which was then coded by professional coders to fully-specified ICD-9-CM codes, including medical condition and V codes (see Health Care Financing Administration, 1980). Although codes were verified and error rates did not exceed 2 percent, analysts should not presume this level of precision in the data; the ability of household respondents to report condition data that can be coded accurately should not be assumed (see Cox and Xxxxxx, 1987; Xxxxxxx, et al, 1994; and Xxxxxxx and Xxxxxxx, 1993). Some condition information is collected in the Medical Provider Component of MEPS. However, since it is not available for everyone in the sample, it is not used to supplement, replace, or verify household- reported condition data. Data analysts should also use caution when working with the procedure codes on this file. Procedure codes are gathered in the same manner as the conditions data, i.e., reports by household respondents. The survey does not prompt respondents for procedures, so procedures are under-reported. In addition, the ability of household respondents to accurately report procedures should not be assumed. Analysts should not use available data on procedures to make estimates of frequencies of specific procedures or to extrapolate to national estimates. Professional coders followed specific guidelines in coding missing values to the ICD-9-CM diagnosis condition and procedure variables. The ICD-9-CM diagnosis condition variable (ICD9CODX) was coded -9 where the verbatim text fell into one of three categories: (1) the text indicated that the condition was unknown (e.g., DK); (2) the text indicated the condition could not be diagnosed by a doctor (e.g., doctor doesn’t know); or (3) the specified condition was not codeable and a procedure could not be discerned from the text. ICD9CODX was coded -1 where the verbatim text strictly denoted a procedure and not a condition. The ICD-9-CM procedure variable (ICD9PROX) was coded -9 where the verbatim text strictly denoted a procedure, but the text was not specific enough to assign a procedure code. ICD9PROX was set to -1 where the text strictly specified a condition and not a procedure. In order to preserve confidentiality, nearly all of the diagnosis condition codes provided on this file have been collapsed from fully-specified codes to 3-digit code categories. Table 1 in Appendix...
