MEPS Pretesting Plan

This letter is to inform you of our plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725). The Census Bureau plans to conduct telephone cognitive interviews on newly-proposed questions for the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Insurance Component (MEPS-IC) - Government Unit Questionnaire. The MEPS-IC -- a self-administered mail out/mail return survey with telephone follow-up conducted annually by the Census Bureau for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) -- collects information from governments who provide health insurance to their employees. Data collected include characteristics about retiree health coverage, employee health coverage, employment, fringe benefits, and information about employees. These data are used to measure state and national levels of health insurance spending and provide data for analyzing the effects of current and proposed healthcare reforms.

Prior versions of the MEPS-IC Government Units Questionnaire included questions about total employment and part-time employment. These data items were removed in 1998 because respondents reported difficulty in acquiring these figures. The absence of these data items has caused editing and data inconsistency issues during analysis. The hope is that with advancements in technology and data accessibility between government agencies, that there will be reduced burden in accessing these pieces of information from respondents.

The purpose of these cognitive interviews is to discover how respondents react to the collection of total and part-time employment figures. Specifically, we intend to address the following questions: Is the requested information available in respondent’s records? Does the respondent need to contact others within the government or outside of the government to access this information? How burdensome are these questions? The results will be recorded and tabulated and a report produced that assesses the viability of the proposed questions. Findings will be used to determine whether these questions will be added to the 2013 MEPS-IC Government Units Questionnaire.

During May, 2012 staff from the Census Bureau’s Health and Training Surveys Branch (HTSB) will conduct a maximum of 100 telephone cognitive interviews.

Cases selected for cognitive interviews will vary by geographic region and type of government and will only include governments that receive the MEPS-11C version of the form.

Respondents will be told that their participation is voluntary. After governments are recruited, Census staff will provide follow-up reminders by telephone and/or fax (if the interview is scheduled for a later time). We will inform the participants that the information they provide is confidential and will not be shared with anyone not directly involved in this research project. Monetary incentives for participation will not be offered.

Enclosed are a copy of the current MEPS-IC Government Unit Questionnaire and a draft cognitive interview protocol which includes the proposed questions.

We expect that each interview will last no more than 30 minutes. Thus, the total estimated reporting burden for this research is approximately 50 hours (0.5 hours X 100 interviews).

The contact person for questions regarding data collection and analysis of the respondent debriefing is listed below:

Jason Lewis

Health and Training Surveys Branch

Economic Planning and Coordination Division

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-5218

Jason.Lewis@census.gov