The Episodes-of-Illness Processing System

This Note documents the methods and assumptions used to process the expenditure claims of families and organize them into episodes which reflect the economics of participants' medical decisions. It discusses the potential advantages of shorter-than-usual analysis, and the rationale for economic episodes; gives an overview of what happens to the claims from their arrival at the insurance plans administrator to their emergence as a series of dated and classified episodes; and provides a description of the study's assumptions and procedures.