Description

For all persons, OBCHGTOT captures the sum of fully established charges for care received from office-based medical providers during the year, excluding those for prescribed medicines. This variable does not usually reflect actual payments made for services, which can be substantially lower due to factors such as negotiated discounts, bad debt, and free care. For more information on how MEPS collects expenditure and charge data, please refer to our user note on medical expenditures.

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

OBCHGTOT is a 6-digit numeric variable.

Comparability

This variable is completely comparable over time.

Universe

Availability

• 1996-2022

Weights

• 1996-2022 : PERWEIGHT

Flags