Description

For all persons, OEEXPOPU captures the sum of direct payments made by other public sources during the year for other medical equipment and services. This category includes expenditures for ambulance services, orthopedic items, hearing devices, prostheses, bathroom aids, medical equipment, disposable supplies, alterations/modifications, and other miscellaneous items or services that were obtained, purchased, or rented during the year. Diabetic supplies and insulin are not considered to be medical equipment, and are therefore not included in this variable. Respondents were asked only once (in Round 3) about their total annual expenditures on other medical equipment and services, and were not asked about their frequency of use of these services.

AHRQ staff advise users to exercise caution when interpreting the expenditures recorded in OEEXPOPU. 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.

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.

OEEXPOPU is a 6-digit numeric variable.

Comparability

This variable is completely comparable over time.

Universe

Availability

• 1996-2018

Weights

• 1996-2018 : PERWEIGHT

Flags