Geographic Variation in Medical Care Spending

Last year the Institute of Medicine, acting on a request by the Congress, released two reports on geographic variation.  One covered variation in the Medicare program, including Parts C and D,  and also took up the question of whether Medicare should reimburse areas with a high “value index” more, where the value index was an undefined function of the quality of care delivered and the cost to the Medicare program. The second estimated the amount of variation in spending if all payers, not just Medicare, were included.  Both reports also examined the association between measures of medical care quality and spending.  This presentation will go over the findings of both reports.