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2022 SIPP: Health Insurance Begin/End Month Status Flag Error

An error in processing health insurance begin and end month status flags led to up to five percent of person-month records being incorrectly assigned status flag values. Status flags should have been assigned a value of 0 (not-in-universe), if the corresponding edited health insurance begin and end variables had missing values. Data users should recode the impacted status flags to 0 if the corresponding begin- or end-month variable is missing (i.e., if EVar=. then AVar=0). The percentage of person-month records being incorrectly assigned status flag values varies by corresponding variable and data file. This error is present in the 2014 SIPP Panel and 2018-2023 SIPP data files.

Below are the 12 impacted status flags and corresponding health insurance begin and end variables:

  • APR1BMONTH (status flag), EPR1BMONTH (edited variable)
  • APR1EMONTH (status flag), EPR1EMONTH (edited variable)
  • APR2BMONTH (status flag), EPR2BMONTH (edited variable)
  • APR2EMONTH (status flag), EPR2EMONTH (edited variable)
  • AMC_BMONTH (status flag), EMC_BMONTH (edited variable)
  • AMC_EMONTH (status flag), EMC_EMONTH (edited variable)
  • AMD_BMONTH (status flag), EMD_BMONTH (edited variable)
  • AMD_EMONTH (status flag), EMD_EMONTH (edited variable)
  • AML_BMONTH (status flag), EML_BMONTH (edited variable)
  • AML_EMONTH (status flag), EML_EMONTH (edited variable)
  • AOT_BMONTH (status flag), EOT_BMONTH (edited variable)
  • AOT_EMONTH (status flag), EOT_EMONTH (edited variable)
Page Last Revised - July 24, 2025