Surprising implication of drivers of Medicare FFS variation – MedPAC
Nikhil Bhojwani
January 18, 2011
New MedPAC report on Medicare fee for service utilization finds large geographic variation not explained by underlying risk or better outcomes. Another indicator of our HC system gone haywire. A couple of overarching datapoints highlight the variation. Only 25% of Medicare enrollees live in regions where Medicare spending is within 5% of the national average (looking only at utilization the # is 30%) Spending in top decile region was 55% greater than spending in the bottom decile region (looking only at utilization, the # is 30%) But that is not the