This public use file is one in a series of event-level public use files drawn from the 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC). Released as an ASCII file with SAS (and SPSS) program statements and in SAS transport format, the Outpatient Visits File provides detailed information on outpatient visits. Data are gathered from a nationally representative sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States and can be used to make estimates of outpatient utilization and expenditures for calendar year 2005. Each record represents one, household-reported, outpatient visit reported during the 2006 portion of round 3 and rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 10, as well as rounds 1, 2 and the 2006 portion of round 3 for Panel 11 of the survey (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2006). The Outpatient Visits Public Use Data File contains characteristics associated with the outpatient visit and imputed expenditure data such as the date of the visit, whether or not a doctor was seen, type of care received, type of services provided, expenditures and sources of payment, and imputed sources of payment.
*The PDF version of the codebook is recommended for printing; the HTML version is database driven and lets you navigate quickly to details on each variable.
**Right-click on the data file link, then select Save Target As or Save Link As to download the file.
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