General Imputation Methodology. The expenditure data included on this file were derived from both the MEPS Household (HC) and Medical Provider Component (MPC). The MPC contacted medical providers identified by household respondents. The charge and payment data from medical providers were used in the expenditure imputation process to supplement missing household data. For all emergency room visits, MPC data were used if complete; otherwise, HC data were used if complete. Missing data for emergency room visits, where HC data were not complete and MPC data were not collected or complete, were constructed through the imputation process.
General Imputation Methodology. Logical edits were used to resolve internal inconsistencies and other problems in the HC and MPC survey-reported data. The edits were designed to preserve partial payment data from households and providers, and to identify actual and potential sources of payment for each household-reported event. In general, these edits accounted for outliers, copayments or charges reported as total payments, and reimbursed amounts that were reported as out of pocket payments. In addition, edits were implemented to correct for misclassifications between Medicare and Medicaid and between Medicare HMO’s and private HMO’s as payment sources. These edits produced a complete vector of expenditures for some events, and provided the starting point for imputing missing expenditures in the remaining events. A weighted sequential hot-deck procedure was used to impute for missing expenditures as well as total charge. The procedure uses survey data from respondents to correct for missing non- respondent data, while preserving the respondents’ weighted distribution in the imputed data. Classification variables vary by event type in the hot-deck imputations, but total charge and insurance coverage are key variables in all of the imputations. Separate imputations were performed for nine categories of medical provider care: inpatient hospital stays, outpatient hospital department visits, emergency room visits, visits to physicians, visits to non-physician providers, dental services, home health care by certified providers, home health care by paid independents, and other medical expenses. After the imputations were finished, visits to physician and non- physician providers were combined into a single medical provider file. The two categories of home care also were combined into a single home health file.
