What is the most complete source of data on the use and costs of health care for Americans?

挑战

美国的政策变化.S. health care delivery and financing system affecting how Americans use and pay for health care services and prescription drugs require continuous large-scale data updates. These updates not only project how much the government needs to spend on federal health care programs—current and future—as well as on drug benefits, 但也要提醒政策制定者注意私营部门的压力点. 例如, these might include increases in the percentage of Americans without health insurance and their impact on the use of emergency room services. All these critical data need to be timely and ongoing as the nation’s health care system is constantly shifting.

Gathering this data efficiently and accurately through the Household Component (HC) of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) requires a highly skilled research firm with extensive large-scale survey experience, 一大批专家, 包括数据科学专家和现场数据收集者, 最先进的技术, 多模式方法, 有效地处理数据收集和处理，以创建公用文件.

趣赢平台 conducts MEPS-HC to support the mission of the 医疗保健研究和质量局(AHRQ) to produce evidence to make health care safer, 更高质量的, 公平的, 更容易, 和负担得起的.

解决方案

每年, 趣赢平台油田新增了大约10个面板,在前一年对全国健康访谈调查作出回应的000户家庭. 这些家庭被邀请参加一系列的5个访谈.5-year period and to allow MEPS to obtain data from their health care providers’ records. This design results in a series of overlapping panels so that each year we can combine data from 2 panels to create annual estimates related to the U.S. 平民. 来管理大量的数据, 韦斯特已经生产了4个000个类变量 to impute health care expenditures and reduce bias in MEPS expenditure estimates.

我们的面试官通常亲自进行主要面试, 电脑辅助个人面试(CAPI), 计算机辅助电话采访(CATI), 和电脑辅助视频访谈(CAVI). 除了, we use web and paper self-administered questionnaires (SAQs) to gather additional information about individual adults in each household.

当2019冠状病毒病大流行中断了2020年和2021年的面对面采访时, 我们以创造性和灵活性来应对, seeking other modes to resume data collection without jeopardizing the estimates moving forward. We shifted immediately to telephone interviewing and built out an existing respondent website to provide households with materials and “show cards” so they could see response categories for specific items. 关于健康的社会决定因素的新的2021年战略指标, we created both web and paper versions of the questionnaire and used email and SMS to invite 受访者 to complete the web version. 2022年，我们在主要面试中引入了CAVI, enabling our interviewers to build rapport with 受访者 through eye contact and a dedicated window to display show cards, 消除了受访者访问网站查看他们的负担.

MEPS-HC data collectors are equipped with advanced technology to support 趣赢平台’s data collection process. 我们先进的现场操作系统支持案例分配, 本地及全国旅游, 以及所有的时间和费用报告. 这些系统在笔记本电脑和移动设备上运行, 我们使用GIS数据来帮助数据采集人员导航到, 和他们联系, 受访者. The systems also collect an extensive set of operational data that support rapid feedback to field staff, 向经理和客户汇报工作, 质量控制, 调查方法研究.

MEPS利用数据科学方法，其中包括自然语言处理(NLP)。, 机器学习(ML), 以及深度学习技术，以改进调查处理和缺失数据的输入. 例如，我们的面试官可以做出开放式的评论来澄清被访者的回答. 每年，面试官会向CAPI系统输入约20,000多条评论. We have trained a classification model to automatically label the comments into 10 predefined classes. This increases processing efficiency while maintaining exacting standards for data quality. 除了, 在整个数据收集过程中, 我们的大量专家人员寻找数据中的异常，以确保其质量. 作为我们质量控制的一部分, 我们的数据科学部门, 使用人工智能(AI), scans transcripts of thousands of computer-assisted recorded interviews (CARI) to determine if there are any falsification of responses that would jeopardize the data’s quality. Increasing the efficiency of data management through innovative data science techniques is critical since MEPS requires a rapid turnaround to field the cases for the next survey cycle.

We are also working with AHRQ to develop web SAQs for MEPS 受访者 with specific health concerns, 比如糖尿病, 癌症, 或者心脏病. We are implementing continuous improvements using multimode and advanced technology in order to reduce under-reporting and perceived respondent burden. 以这种方式, 我们可以更连续地收集健康事件数据, 精简面对面的面试, 提高数据质量, 减少被调查者的负担.

结果

自1996年以来, 我们进行了近100万次MEPS-HC面对面调查访谈, providing the government with annual national estimates concerning the use and costs of health care services by Americans, 他们是如何支付的, 他们的健康保险, 健康状况, 以及其他与医疗保健使用相关的项目.

每年, 我们制作了3个主要数据文件和一系列特定主题的文件, 将家庭报告的数据与其卫生保健提供者提供的数据相结合, 对缺失的数据进行估算. These data continuously serve to inform the government on how best to improve the quality of federal health care programs and expand access to care.