Description: MEPS includes expenditures for eight types of medical events: hospital stays, emergency room visits, outpatient department visits, office-based medical provider visits, dental visits, home health care, other medical expenses, and prescription medicines. Expenditures for these events include all direct payments by individuals, private insurance (including TRICARE), Medicare, Medicaid, and other sources such as the Veterans Administration, Workers' Compensation, and miscellaneous public sources to providers of the services. In addition to the tables, query tool, and publications below, person-level and event-level data files with medical expenditure variables can be downloaded for analysis.

Data tables: For tables specifically on medical expenditures, go to the Expenditures by Health Care Service, Expenditures by Medical Condition, and State-Level Medical Expenditures tables of the HC Summary Data Tables.

Analytic tools: You can use the MEPSnet/HC query tool to generate your own estimates for medical expenditures. Select from the variable subgroups in the Utilization, Expenditures, and SOP Variable Group of the Variable Selection Query Tab.

AHRQ Podcasts: Healthcare 411 Series: The Nation's 10 Most Expensive Medical Conditions 00:53 (MM:SS)
Healthcare 411 Series: Report on the Cost of Having a Baby 00:51 (MM:SS)
Healthcare 411 Series: The Cost of Treating Adults with Diabetes 00:57 (MM:SS)