The Community Tracking Study: Measuring Changes in the U.S. Health Care System over Time

• Activity Number: 10
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Sunday, August 11, 2002 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods*
• Author(s): Barbara Carlson*+
• Affiliation(s): Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
• Keywords: Community Tracking Study ; health care ; health survey

Abstract

The Center for Studying Health System Change, with funding by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has undertaken a multi-year multifaceted study of changes over time in the U.S. health care system. While the Community Tracking Study (CTS) allows for national estimates using survey data, its design also allows for a more focused study of twelve randomly selected metropolitan areas, including data from site visits. There are three survey components in the CTS: a household survey, a physician survey, and a follow-back survey of health plans. To date, three rounds of data collection have been completed for the household and physician surveys, and two rounds for the follow-back survey. Data are made available to researchers via public use files. To allow for a number of different types of survey estimates while maintaining an efficient design, the sample designs are complex and multifaceted. The design characteristics that make the data so versatile have posed many unique challenges in the estimation process. The talks in this session highlight some of the challenges faced by the household and physician surveys and the solutions we have devised to meet them.