Additional Data Sets of Interest

Healthcare Costs and Utilization Project Nationwide Inpatient Sample (HCUP-NIS)

HCUP, maintained by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), comprises a family of administrative longitudinal databases, including State-specific hospital-discharge databases and a national sample of discharges from community hospitals. Data exist for the years 1988 - 1997, with Release 1 containing years 1988 through 1992, and Releases 2 through 6 representing each year from 1993 to 1997. Data come from selected states and cover between 5 and 7.1 million inpatient stays and between 800 - 1000 hospitals each year in the United States. It is designed to approximate a 20 percent sample of hospitals in the US. Analyses may be done at discharge or hospital levels. Regarding health insurance coverage, there are variables describing Primary Expected Payer and Secondary Expected Payer, including the categories Medicare, Medicaid, Private Insurance, Self-pay, No Charge, and Other. The documentation describes Payer variations among the states.

Information about this survey can be found at http://www.ahcpr.gov/data/hcup/.