To search the MEPS Data Tools click on the Data Tools link:
There are two Data Tools, choose the one most appropriate for your topic:
Household Component: "Information on the health status of Americans, health insurance coverage, and access, use, and cost of health services."
Insurance Component: "Information from the private sector and State and local governments on the health insurance coverage offered to their employees."
Each will have a variety of sub topics to search. E.g. Health Insurance under Household Component. Click the topic name to search that area.
Use the toolbar on the left to change the parameters of the default search. The default search will be for a range of years. The most recent year is the last year available for that topic in the MEPS study.
Click the CROSS-SECTIONAL tab to refine your search. Use the dropdowns under each to limit by your desired parameters. The cross sectional searches will (usually) only display one year at a time. You may need to conduct several searches to get all the information needed.
Use the NOTES below for definitions of terms used in the study e.g. the definition of private vs public insurance. Click the + icon to view the definition and - to hide.
The MEPS Data Tool is an interactive resource that produces information that is 'non retrievable' - that is, you cannot point your reader directly back to the search you conducted. The References and In-Text citations are slightly modified from the usual web source format. Use the examples below and update to fit your topic search results.
References page citation (see below for more information)*
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (n.d.*) Search Title [Infographic]. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (n.d.) Number of people in thousands by race/ethnicity and insurance coverage, United States, 2020 [Infographic]. Retrieved February 15, 2023, from https://dataviz.ahrq.gov/views/MEPS-HC_UseExPop_AHRQDTPDM_v2_1/Cross-sectionalDB
*Because these are produced on demand there is no publication date. Use no date (n.d.) in lieu of a publication date. When using several references with the same author and date (or no date) you will need to distinguish them in your paper. To do this, add a lower case letter, beginning with a to the sources as they appear on the References page - not the order cited in the body of your paper. Since they will all have the same author (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) and date (n.d.), sort them alphabetically by title (after first listing by creator name). For example, if you ran another search titled Percent of population with an expense by race/ethnicity and insurance coverage, United States, 2020, the in-text citations would be:
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (n.d.a) Number of people in thousands .....
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (n.d.b) Percent of population with ......
In-Text Citations
Because the URL from the data tool result does not link back to the exact search performed, the writer should provide a description of the limiters used in the search. e.g.:
Data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (n.d.b) sorted by type of insurance coverage and grouped by race/ethnicity showed....
*see notes about distinguishing between sources with same author and date above
Parenthetical: (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. n.d.*)
(Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. n.d.a).
Narrative: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (n.d.*)
Data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (n.d.b) sorted by type of insurance coverage and grouped by race/ethnicity showed....
You may notice the Variable Explorer Tool which claims it offers a "quick and easy way to find what they are looking for in terms of variables and files for research purposes." It is not user friendly and is meant for those with time and advance research skills.
A sample of a data file (HC 224: 2020 Full Year Consolidated Data File) looks like:
Using the question codes at the top (FCSZ1231 etc), you'd need to search the codebook to determine what question it referred to and what each answer variable meant. E.g. FLSTAT20 is a question about Tax filing status in 2020. If the field has a 2 in it - the filing status was Married filing joint return.
