Announcements

New data now available from MEPS, HCUP, and the new HIVnet

AHRQ recently released new data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), as follows:

MEPS

In the first half of 2001, 16.7 percent of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population, or 45.9 million people, had no health insurance coverage, according to data from the 2001 MEPS. Young adults, ages 19-24, were the age group at the greatest risk of being uninsured, with 33.9 percent of this group lacking health insurance. Hispanics accounted for 26.3 percent of the uninsured non-elderly population, even though they represented only 13.1 percent of the entire population under 65.

Select to access the complete data file and graphics representing some of these statistics (PDF Help).

HCUP

Data from the 2000 State Inpatient Databases (SID), State Ambulatory Surgery Databases (SASD), and Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) are now available for purchase. These powerful HCUP databases, which come in uniform format to aid researchers, cover all patients regardless of payer, include the uninsured, and contain charge information. The SID 2000 data are available for 16 States: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin. The SASD 2000 data are currently available for Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Wisconsin. The 2000 SID comprise discharge abstract data from all community hospitals in those 16 States. The 2000 SASD capture information on surgeries performed at hospital-affiliated ambulatory surgery sites in the five States. The 2000 NIS includes discharge information on roughly 7 million hospital stays from about 1,000 community hospitals in 28 States. The NIS approximates a 20-percent sample of community hospitals.

For information on purchasing these data and earlier-year data, select HCUP flyer.

HIVnet

In addition to these new MEPS and HCUP resources, AHRQ recently announced the online availability of HIV health care use statistics.

Public health officials and others can now access HIV health care use data online through AHRQ's HIVnet. This interactive service provides statistical answers in real time to questions about HIV patients' use of outpatient and inpatient care by age, sex, race/ethnicity, HIV risk group, insurance status and type, protease inhibitor use, and other variables. Current data, drawn from the AHRQ-supported HIV Research Network, are for 1999, but 2000 data will be added later this year.

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