Enhancing the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) for Cancer Survivorship Research

National Cancer Institute, Frederick MD

Investigators

Abstract

The purpose of this agreement is for the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to provide financial support to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) for the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). This project is a collaborative effort between the NCI, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research (OBSSR) of the National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and the American Cancer Society (ACS). A direct citation was completed between OBSSR and NCI. An NIH gift fund was established for ACS funds. The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) is nationally representative survey of the civilian non-institutionalized population in the United States conducted by AHRQ. The MEPS collects comprehensive data on health care and health care expenditures over a two-year period. The NCI, CDC, OBSSR, and ACS collaborated previously with AHRQ to create the MEPS Experiences with Cancer Supplement, which oversampled households with cancer survivors from the prior year National Health Interview Survey and fielded a special survey about economic burden and access to care in cancer survivors. Due to a change in the NHIS sample design, MEPS will not be able to oversample cancer survivors in the 2024 data collection. The current effort will field an updated version of the MEPS Experiences with Cancer Survey in CY2024 starting in FY 2024. The new version of the survey will include most of the same questions as the earlier survey to allow comparisons of trends and will replace some survey items that are now less critical or available from other data sources with new questions on employment impacts and workplace accommodations; survivorship care; social determinants of health; and social isolation and support.