Description

For all persons, HPPREXOPU captures the sum of direct payments made by other public insurance source for "separately billing doctor," or SBD, expenses associated with all inpatient hospital visits. SBD expenses include those for services provided to patients in hospital settings by providers like radiologists, anesthesiologists, and pathologists, whose charges are often not included in hospital bills. 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 advise users to exercise caution when interpreting the expenditures recorded in HPPREXOPU. 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, some of the "other public" payments may stem from confusion between Medicaid and other state and local programs or may be for persons who were not enrolled in Medicaid, but were presumed eligible by a provider who ultimately received payments from the program. For more information on how MEPS collects expenditure data, please refer to our user note on medical expenditures.

For more information about how hospital expenditures are handled for inpatient stays that do not include an overnight stay or hospitalizations for the birth of a child, please refer to the description for HPEXPTOT.

Related variables
Variables related to total annual health care expenditures by source of payment, total annual health care expenditures by type of medical service, and total annual health care charges are also available. Please refer to our user note on expenditures for a list of these variables.

HPPREXOPU is a 6-digit numeric variable.

Comparability

This variable is completely comparable over time.

Universe

Availability

• 1996-2018

Weights

• 1996-2018 : PERWEIGHT

Flags