title: Patient-centered care categorization of U.S. health care expenditures.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To categorize national medical expenditures into patient-centered categories.
  
  
  METHODS
  The 2007 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a nationally representative annual survey of the civilian noninstitutionalized population.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive statistics categorizing expenditures into seven patient-centered care categories: chronic conditions, acute illness, trauma/injury or poisoning, dental, pregnancy/birth-related, routine preventative health care, and other.
  
  
  METHODS
  MEPS cohort.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nearly half of expenditures were for chronic conditions. The remaining expenditures were as follows: acute illness (25 percent), trauma/poisoning (8 percent), dental (7 percent), routine preventative health care (6 percent), pregnancy/birth-related (4 percent), and other (3 percent). Hospital-based expenditures accounted for the majority for acute illness, trauma/injury, and pregnancy/birth and over a third for chronic conditions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This patient-centered viewpoint may complement other methods to examine health care expenditures and may better represent how patients interact with the health care system and expend resources.
authors.affiliation: Division of General Pediatrics, Hospital Medicine, Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA. Conway@CCHMC.org
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Conway
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Goodrich
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Machlin
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sasse
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease / Q000191:economics; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000191:economics; D003729:Dental Care / Q000191:economics; D005260:Female; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009774:Obstetrics / Q000191:economics; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011041:Poisoning / Q000191:economics; D011315:Preventive Medicine / Q000191:economics; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000191:economics; D055815:Young Adult