Open AccessReconciling Medical Expenditure Estimates from the MEPS and NHEA, 2007
Author(s) -
Didem Bernard,
Cathy A. Cowan,
Thomas M. Selden,
Liming Cai,
Aaron Catlin,
Stephen Heffler
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
medicare and medicaid research review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2159-0354
DOI - 10.5600/mmrr.002.04.a09
Subject(s) - medical expenditure panel survey , actuary , health care , medicaid , agency (philosophy) , goods and services , actuarial science , public economics , business , economics , health insurance , economic growth , market economy , philosophy , epistemology
Provide a comparison of health care expenditure estimates for 2007 from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEA). Reconciling these estimates serves two important purposes. First, it is an important quality assurance exercise for improving and ensuring the integrity of each source's estimates. Second, the reconciliation provides a consistent baseline of health expenditure data for policy simulations. Our results assist researchers to adjust MEPS to be consistent with the NHEA so that the projected costs as well as budgetary and tax implications of any policy change are consistent with national health spending estimates.