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Bureau of Labor Statistics > Consumer Price Index > About > Notices

Recent and upcoming methodology changes: 2018

Health insurance (posted November 23, 2018)

With the release of September 2018 data, CPI began using new sources to calculate the retained earnings ratio used to compute the commercial insurance portion of the health insurance index. The new sources are the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and the California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC). Previously, the CPI used data from A.M. Best, a private source that provides information about and data related to the insurance industry.

Average prices (posted February 14, 2018)

With April 2018 data, BLS discontinued publication of 33 average price series and introduced 5 new average price series. See tables below for details.

Physicians' services (updated May 10, 2018)

With the release of April 2018 data, CPI began using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey produced by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to adjust the weights of payer types included in the physicians’ services index. The resulting index better reflects current market weights by increasing the share of payments covered by private insurance relative to payments made by uninsured people and payments covered by Medicare Part B. Additional information on this process is available at Measuring Price Change in the CPI: Medical care

Smartphones (posted March 7, 2018)

With April 2018 data, directed substitution is employed for smartphones in order to bring the CPI sample of smartphones more in line with what consumers are purchasing. Directed substitution is based on statistics on how often consumers upgrade their smartphones and takes place approximately twice a year to coincide with new hardware releases from manufacturers.

Smartphones (posted January 2, 2018)

With January 2018 data, smartphones, which are part of the telephone hardware, calculators, and other consumer information items index, are quality adjusted to account for the rapid rate of technological advancements and improved quality to customers. Additional information on the process is available at Measuring Price Change in the CPI: Telephone hardware, calculators, and other consumer information items.

Table 1. Discontinued average price series.
Item code	Item label	Last publication date
702611	Salted soda crackers	October 2000
703312	USDA round roast	July 2014
703431	USDA short ribs, bone-in	May 2011
703612	USDA sirloin steak (1)	June 2017
704321	Canned ham, pear shaped can, 3-5 lbs.	November 1992
704413	Pork shoulder picnic, bone-in	December 1997
704421	Fresh pork sausage, breakfast style, loose	September 2002
705141	Beef liver	January 2000
705142	USDA lamb and mutton, bone-in	January 1994
709111	Whole fortified milk, sold at store, per half-gallon	December 1997
709212	Low-fat milk, sold at store, per half-gallon	September 1992
709213	Low-fat milk, sold at store, per gallon	October 2002
710111	Butter, creamy, salted, grade AA, stick, sold at store	April 2012
710122	Natural yogurt, fruit flavored, sold at store, per 8 oz.	March 2003
711312	Oranges, Valencia	August 2013
712401	Cabbage	October 2012
712402	Celery, excluding celery hearts	October 2012
712403	Carrots, short trimmed or topped	March 2014
712404	Dried onions, yellow varieties	March 2014
712405	Green onions (scallions)	January 2000
712407	Corn on the cob	June 1988
712408	Radishes	June 1988
712409	Cucumbers	April 2000
712410	Green snap beans	January 2000
712411	Mushrooms	January 2000
713311	Apple sauce	December 1997
713312	Canned peaches	December 1997
714111	Frozen French fried potatoes	December 2004
714232	Canned tomatoes	December 1997
716114	Margarine, stick	May 2014
717113	Cola drinks, except diet, cans, 10-13.5 oz., 6 pack	February 1992
717327	Coffee, instant plain, regular, all sizes, per lb.	September 2003
717114	Cola, nondiet, per 2 liters	January 2000
Footnotes: (1) This series was not published October 2013 through May 2017.

Table 2. New average price series.
Item code	Item label
FN1101	All soft drinks, 2 liter
FN1102	All soft drinks, 12 ounce, 12 pack
FJ1101	Milk, low-fat, reduced fat, skim, gallon container
FJ4101	Yogurt, per 8 ounce
FS1101	Butter, in sticks, per pound

For archived recent and upcoming methodology changes since 2017, see the recent and upcoming methodology change notice archive.

Last Modified Date: August 25, 2022