22 – Health Care Panel Surveys: Methodological Challenges Demonstrated Through the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
Design and Analytic Considerations for the MEPS Longitudinal Insurance Component
David Kashihara
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Steve Machlin
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Frederick Rohde
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
To assess the initial impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Insurance Component (MEPS-IC) fielded a longitudinal arm comprised of 3,000 responding small business establishments to the 2013 MEPS-IC that were eligible to use the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) marketplaces to purchase insurance in 2014. This longitudinal design was implemented to capture detailed transition estimates during the ACA implementation period that would be missed by just comparing independent sample estimates for 2013 and 2014. The design was planned to balance precision considerations for two key outcome variables (offer health insurance and number of enrolled employees) by select firm characteristics. The initial survey design will be described and typical survey estimates will be provided as an example of the type of estimates available from these data. In addition, changes to the sample design for subsequent iterations of this longitudinal survey will be presented.