Description
For all persons, RXEXPOPR captures the sum of direct payments made during the year by another private source for prescribed medications. Payments for over-the-counter drugs and indirect payments not related to specific medical events, such as Medicaid Disproportionate Share and Medicare Direct Medical Education subsidies, are not included in this amount.
AHRQ staff advises users to exercise caution when interpreting the expenditures recorded in RXEXPOPR. While these payments stem from apparent inconsistent responses to the health insurance and source of payment questions in the survey, some of these inconsistencies may have logical explanations. For example, private insurance coverage in MEPS is defined as having a major medical plan covering hospital and physician services. If a MEPS sample person did not have such coverage but had a single service type insurance plan (e.g., dental insurance) that paid for a particular episode of care, those payments may be classified as "other private." For more information on how MEPS collects information about prescription medications, please refer to our user note on Collection of Information about Prescription Medications.
Related variables
Variables related to total annual prescription medication expenditures by source of payment are also available. Please refer to our user note on expenditures for a list of these variables.
