Please note that the OMB number and expiration date may not have been determined when this Information Collection Request and associated Information Collection forms were submitted to OMB. The approved OMB number and expiration date may be found by clicking on the Notice of Action link below.

View ICR - OIRA Conclusion

OMB Control No: 0935-0118	ICR Reference No: 202209-0935-003
Status: Historical Active	Previous ICR Reference No: 202007-0935-001
Agency/Subagency: HHS/AHRQ	Agency Tracking No:
Title: Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) COVID-19 Changes
Type of Information Collection: Revision of a currently approved collection	Common Form ICR: No
Type of Review Request: Regular
OIRA Conclusion Action: Approved with change	Conclusion Date: 11/15/2022
Retrieve Notice of Action (NOA)	Date Received in OIRA: 10/05/2022
Terms of Clearance:

	Inventory as of this Action	Requested	Previously Approved
Expiration Date	11/30/2025	36 Months From Approved	11/30/2023
Responses	392,715	0	379,377
Time Burden (Hours)	88,531	0	88,309
Cost Burden (Dollars)	0	0	0

Abstract: The questions will be asked of all MEPS sample members with a single household respondent reporting for the household. The first two questions serve as gate questions and only respondents who report having a COVID-19 diagnosis in the relevant time period will receive follow-up questions about the timing of their most recent infection. These questions will be administered in the existing Priority Conditions Enumeration section of MEPS, which includes a similar series of questions about whether household members have ever been diagnosed with certain medical conditions. Historically, MEPS has been conducted using Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) where field interviews conduct interviews with household respondents in person. However, MEPS is currently being conducted via multiple modes, including face-to-face, phone, and virtual interviewing, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The information collected on COVID-19 diagnoses will undergo editing and be reviewed for data quality, including consistency with publicly available sources of data on COVID-19 infections. Additionally, the resulting variables will be included on the annual MEPS full-year consolidated public use data files after being assessed for any potential disclosure concerns. The new CAPI questions collecting information about COVID-19 will be folded into the regular processing stream of MEPS data to produce estimates of health care utilization and expenditures. The information collected on COVID-19 diagnoses will be used to compare healthcare utilization and expenditures between those who have had confirmed COVID-19 and those who have not. Additionally, the information collected on the timing of recent infections can be used to either include or exclude recent infections from calendar year or round-specific estimates of healthcare utilization and expenditures. This allows researchers to examine both shorter-term and longer-term impacts of a COVID-19 diagnosis on healthcare utilization and expenditures.

ICR Summary of Burden

	Total Approved	Previously Approved	Change Due to Agency Discretion
Annual Number of Responses	392,715	379,377	13,338
Annual Time Burden (Hours)	88,531	88,309	222
Annual Cost Burden (Dollars)	0	0	0

Burden increases because of Program Change due to Agency Discretion: Yes

Burden Increase Due to: Miscellaneous Actions

Burden decreases because of Program Change due to Agency Discretion: No

Burden Reduction Due to:

Short Statement: The total estimated annual burden hours for the MEPS have increased from 88,309 hours in the previous clearance to 88,531 hours in this clearance request, an increase of 222 hours due to the addition of the COVID-19 related questions.

Annual Cost to Federal Government: $70,500

Does this IC contain surveys, censuses, or employ statistical methods? Yes Part B of Supporting Statement

Does this ICR request any personally identifiable information (see OMB Circular No. A-130 for an explanation of this term)? Please consult with your agency's privacy program when making this determination. Yes

Does this ICR include a form that requires a Privacy Act Statement (see 5 U.S.C. §552a(e)(3))? Please consult with your agency's privacy program when making this determination. No

Is this ICR related to the Affordable Care Act [Pub. L. 111-148 & 111-152]? Yes

Is this ICR related to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, [Pub. L. 111-203]? No

Is this ICR related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)? No

Is this ICR related to the Pandemic Response? Yes

Agency Contact: Erwin Brown 301 427-1652 erwin.brown@ahrq.hhs.gov