Overview of Methodology for Imputing Missing Expenditure Data in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey

• Activity Number: 77
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 9, 2004 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
• Author(s): Steven R. Machlin*+ and Deborah D. Dougherty
• Companies: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Westat
• Keywords: hot-deck imputation ; MEPS ; health expenditures

Abstract

In the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), expenditures are defined as payments from all sources (including individuals, private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and other sources) for health care services during the year. Data on expenditures are collected for sample persons in the Household Component of the survey, and from a sample of their health care providers responding to the Medical Provider Component of the survey. In the absence of payment information from either component, expenditure data are completed through weighted hot-deck imputation procedures. The MEPS collects a wide variety of data about individuals and health care events that are correlated with expenditures and a selected set of these variables are used in the imputation processes. Several hot-deck iterations are run for medical event type category in the survey (e.g., doctor visits, hospitalizations, etc.) based on factors such as whether partial payment information was reported and whether payments for the event covered multiple visits. This paper provides an overview of the methodological approach to impute MEPS expenditure data and how class variables for the hot deck procedures were determined.