michigan informatics

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

http://www.ahrq.gov/

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) provides access to survey statistics on a variety of topics, including medical expenditures, healthcare costs and use, hospital statistics, and HIV and AIDS costs. Formats vary by survey, but many include searchable databases of downloadable public use data, as well as tabulated data and fact sheets.

Surveys include:

• Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS)
  The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) provides comprehensive information about health care use and costs in the United States on the specific health services that Americans use, how frequently they use them, the cost of these services, and how they are paid for, as well as data on the cost, scope, and breadth of private health insurance held by and available to the U.S. population. Data is available in a tabular format, as downloadable public use files, and accessible online through MEPSnet.

• Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)
  The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP, pronounced "H-Cup") includes the largest collection of longitudinal hospital care data in the United States, with all-payer, encounter-level information beginning in 1988. These databases cover a broad range of health policy issues, including cost and quality of health services, medical practice patterns, access to health care programs, and outcomes of treatments at the national, state, and local market levels.
  
  HCUP databases available for purchase include:
• State Inpatient Databases (SID)
• State Ambulatory Surgery Databases (SASD)
• State Emergency Department Databases (SEDD)
• Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS)
• Kids' Inpatient Database (KID)
  
  
• HCUPnet
  HCUPnet is the free, on-line query system based on HCUP data, providing access to health statistics and information on hospital stays at the national, regional, and state level.