Efforts are underway towards the development of a national health care quality reporting system. The purpose of the reporting system is to provide an annual profile of the nation's quality of healthcare and to help measure improvements over time. This paper will provide a summary of planned enhancements to the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) to support quality of healthcare analyses. The MEPS was designed to produce national and regional annual estimates of the health care utilization, expenditures, sources of payment and insurance coverage of the U.S. civilian non-institutionalized population. The current sample yields and precision levels are presented for a set of high priority health conditions. In addition, the currently available measures of consumer and patient satisfaction that are directed to health care access, health care services and delivery systems and clinical care will be discussed. It will be necessary to implement an oversample of individuals in the 2001 MEPS to satisfy precision requirements for planned quality of care analyses. Implementation of additional probes in the condition section of the MEPS will also be necessary to improve the quality of household reporting for the targeted conditions. Furthermore, an additional set of quality measures that assess the satisfaction level with health care quality and access to care for individuals receiving treatment for the set of oversampled health condition are being designed for potential inclusion in the survey. The presentation provides a summary of the planned enhancements to sample design and modifications to the questionnaire to support health care quality measurement.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to: 1. Understand the current capacity of the MEPS to address health care quality analyses. 2. Learn about the planned sample expansions to improve the precision of survey estimates for individuals with targeted health conditions. 3. Identify the additional set of quality measures that are being considered to assess the satisfaction level with health care quality and access to care for individuals receiving treatment for the set of oversampled health conditions (diabetes, asthma, hypertension)
Keywords: Health Care Quality, Patient Satisfaction
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: AHRQ
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Employment