Description: MEPS collects information about a select group of medical conditions that have been specified by the Agency for HealthCare Research and Quality as "priority conditions." These conditions, selected for their prevalence, expense, or relevance to policy, are: hypertension, heart disease, stroke, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, high cholesterol, cancer, arthritis, asthma, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or ADD), and diabetes. Diabetes information is collected through the Diabetes Care Survey (DCS), a supplement in the MEPS Household questionnaire, taken of those respondents who reported that they have been diagnosed with diabetes. Diabetes is also identified by the condition code associated with medical events reported during a reference period. In addition to the tables below, person-level data files with diabetes variables can be downloaded for analysis.

Data tables: The Expenditures by Medical Condition tables of the MEPS-HC Summary Data Tables contain information on expenditures, number of persons, and number of events related to diabetes. In addition to these tables, the Table 1 series of the Quality of Care Tables contains information on medical care specific to diabetes.

Analytic tools: No condition or diabetes variables are available in the MEPSnet/HC query tool at this time.

 AHRQ Podcasts: Healthcare 411 Series: The Cost of Treating Adults with Diabetes 00:57 (MM:SS)
Healthcare 411 Series: Diabetes Testing 00:45 (MM:SS)