Medical Expenditure Panel (MEPS) - Medical provider Component (MPC)

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) anticipates posting a solicitation for proposals for a 61 month (base period of 5 months with 4 separate 20-month extension options) cost plus fixed fee contract for the maintenance and fielding of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Support - Medical Provider Component (MPC) which will include collecting, editing, and analyzing data collected from the on-going MEPS-HC (household component) contract.

The MEPS Medical Provider Component (MPC) collects data from all hospitals, emergency rooms, home health care agencies, outpatient departments, long term health care facilities and pharmacies reported by MEPS Household Component (HC) respondents as well as all physicians who provide services for patients in hospitals but bill separately from the hospital. Office based medical providers where the provider is either a doctor of medicine (MD) or Osteopathy (DO) or practices under the direct supervision of an MD or DO are included in the MPC as well. HMOs are included in the MPC data collection. For this contract, long term health care facilities include nursing homes, assisted living facilities, rehabilitation facilities, as well as any health care facility providing medical care to those reporting such care in the HC of the MEPS. Jails, prisons, and medical facilities or pharmacies outside the United States are considered out of scope for the MPC.

The primary objective of the MPC is to collect data from medical providers (hospitals, physicians, home health agencies, pharmacies, long term health care facilities) on expenditures for medical services provided to MEPS sample persons. Such data are essential to improve the accuracy of the national medical expenditure estimates derived from the MEPS, since household respondents are not always the most reliable source of information on medical expenditures. The data also serve as the primary imputation source of medical expenditure data to correct for the item non-response on this measure by the MEPS household sample participants. MPC data also serve as an imputation source for item non-response to reduce the level of bias in survey estimates of medical expenditures. They also serve as source of expenditure information on physician charges that are associated with hospital care but not billed by the hospital, as well as serving the primary source of expenditure information for Medicaid recipients. The sample for the MPC is chosen from medical providers identified in the HC as having provided care to the sample person during the year.

The Contractor shall be responsible for conducting the MPC data collection, the preparation of MPC data files needed for producing MEPS HC data files and expenditure estimates, matching HC and MPC data, and the production of an extensive array of analytic files which will include raw data files, matched data files and files that will include matching variables as well MPC variables needed for editing and imputation. The latter files will need to be in the appropriate format to be input directly into the expenditure and editing programs. In addition, the offeror is expected to use and maintain an electronic data capture application which allows for data to be entered no matter the mode of collection (telephone, record abstraction, CD-ROM, or FTP). Each year of the MPC, all providers shall be screened to ascertain their eligibility, their association with the MEPS household respondent, and to obtain information to facilitate the conduct of the core MPC interview. Appropriate security measures must be demonstrated with regards to maintaining the confidential protection of data collected.