MEPS Panel 21 Weight Development Process. The person-level weight for MEPS Panel 21 was developed using the 2016 MEPS Round 1 person-level weight as a “base” weight. For key, in-scope members who joined an RU after Round 1, the Round 1 family weight served as a “base” weight. The weighting process included an adjustment for nonresponse over the remaining data collection rounds in 2016 as well as raking to the same population control figures for December 2016 used for the MEPS Panel 20 weights for key, responding persons in-scope on December 31, 2016. The same five variables employed for Panel 20 raking (census region, MSA status, race/ethnicity, sex, and age) were used for Panel 21 raking. Again, the final weight for key, responding persons who were not in- scope on December 31, 2016 but were in-scope earlier in the year was the person weight after the nonresponse adjustment. Note that the MEPS Round 1 weights for both panels incorporated the following components: a weight reflecting the original household probability of selection for the NHIS and an adjustment for NHIS nonresponse; a factor representing the proportion of the 16 NHIS panel-quarter combinations eligible for MEPS; the oversampling of certain subgroups for MEPS among the NHIS household respondents eligible for MEPS; ratio-adjustment to NHIS-based national population estimates at the household (occupied DU) level; adjustment for nonresponse at the DU level for Round 1; and poststratification to U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population estimates at the family and person level obtained from the corresponding March CPS databases.
