Attachment 14 -- HC Rd 3 Advance Letter 1

Winter 2009

Dear MEPS Participant,

In preparation for your next MEPS interview, we are sending you a 2009 monthly planner (calendar) to use to keep notes about your health care. Please feel free to use whatever record-keeping system you find to be most helpful.

When you complete the interview you will receive a gift of $30 to thank you for your time and for keeping records about your family’s health care.

We will send you a reminder letter before the next interview, which is planned for the first half of 2009. If you would like to set an appointment, please complete and return the enclosed postcard. Should you move before the interview, please complete and return the enclosed postage-paid change of address card. Your MEPS interviewer will call you to schedule the next interview.

On behalf of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we would like to express our sincere appreciation for your continuing participation in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).¹ We appreciate your commitment to this effort. The information you have provided thus far has already been combined with information from thousands of households across the country who also have participated in MEPS. Health care researchers are using this information to learn about the rapidly changing American health care system. To learn more about the study, you may visit the study website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov.

Sincerely,

Carolyn Clancy, M.D. Director Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Edward J. Sondik, Ph.D. Director National Center for Health Statistics Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

1 This survey is authorized under Section 902 (a) of the Public Health Service Act [42 U.S.C. 299a]. The confidentiality of personal information is protected by Federal Statutes, Section 934(c) and Section 308(d) of the Public Health Service Act [42 U.S.C. 299c-3(c) and 242m(d)] and will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. That law requires that information collected for research conducted or supported by AHRQ that identifies individuals or establishments be used only for the purpose for which it was supplied unless you consent to the use of the information for another purpose.

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