Description

For all persons eligible for the Access to Care section (ACCESSELIG) with a usual source of care (USUALPL), USCPRDIFTEL reports the level of difficulty individuals experience in contacting a medical provider at their usual source of care over the telephone for a health problem.

USCPRDIFTEL is collected as part of the Access to Care section, which gathers information on usual source of care for all family members, characteristics of usual source of care health providers, and barriers family members have faced in obtaining needed health care. Please see USCPRNGTWKD for all variables pertaining to the accessibility of the respondent's usual source of care and ACCESSELIG for more information about the Access to Care section.

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.

Comparability

Users should note that the Access to Care variables are not designed to yield full-year estimates in 1997, as the section is only administered in Round 2 instead of Rounds 2 and 4. The 1997 AHRQ documentation advises that "The 1997 Access to Care variables cannot be used to make full-year estimates, but can be useful in such analyses as trend analyses, or for enhancing subgroup analyses. These variables may be of particular interest because of the 1997 oversample of populations (such as poverty, children with activity limitations, adults with functional limitations, high medical expenditure cases, and the elderly) where access issues are particularly relevant" (C-16). Because USCPRDIFTEL is only collected in Round 2 in 1997 instead of Rounds 2 and 4, USCPRDIFTEL cannot be used to make a full-year estimate in 1997.
Otherwise, this variable is comparable over time.

Universe

Availability

• 1996-2021

Weights

• 1996-2021 : PERWEIGHT

Flags