Description

For emergency room, inpatient hospitalizations, and outpatient events (EVENTYPE), EVEXPWCDR captures the direct payments made by Worker's Compensation to separately billing doctors for care provided during the event. 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. For 2000-2017, outpatient events are not in universe if the visit was a telephone call (SEETLKPV). For more information on how MEPS collects expenditure data, please refer to our user note on medical expenditures.

IPUMS MEPS reports the universe for each variable based on a thorough review of the original MEPS documentation. Investigating the data may reveal cases that do not meet the stated universe. Users are encouraged to validate universes for their analyses.

The sum of EVEXPWCDR and EVEXPWCFAC (available for emergency room visits, inpatient hospitalization stays, and outpatient visits event types) is equivalent to EVEXPWC (available for dental, other medical, office-based and home health event types).

EVEXPWCDR is on the event record (see RECTYPE for more details on the different record types in IPUMS MEPS). Variables offered on the event record through IPUMS MEPS are derived from the dental visits, other medical expenses, hospital inpatient stays, emergency room visits, outpatient visits, office-based medical provider visits, and home health event files provided by AHRQ. Please see our overview of the event, medical conditions, and prescribed medicines variables, including how those variables are offered through IPUMS MEPS, and general considerations to keep in mind when conducting analyses using these variables.

EVEXPWCDR is a 10-digit numeric variable with 2 implied decimal places. That is, values of 1234567890 should be interpreted as 12,345,678.90. The command files delivered with IPUMS extracts automatically divide by 100, so no further adjustment is needed.

99999999.99: Not in Universe

Comparability

Other than changes in universe this variable is completely comparable over time. See the universe tab for more details.

Universe

Availability

• 1996-2022

Weights

• 1996-2022 : PERWEIGHT

Flags