Studies from Brigham and Women’s Hospital Add New Findings in the Area of Medicare and Medicaid (Geographic Variation in Medicare and the Military…

Studies from Brigham and Women's Hospital Add New Findings in the Area of Medicare and Medicaid (Geographic Variation in Medicare and the Military Healthcare System)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Research findings on Medicare and Medicaid are discussed in a new report. According to news originating from Boston, Massachusetts, by VerticalNews correspondents, research stated, "To compare geographic variation in healthcare spending and utilization between the Military Health System (MHS) and Medicare across hospital referral regions (HRRs). Retrospective analysis. Data on age-, sex-, and race-adjusted Medicare per capita expenditure and utilization measures by HRR were obtained from the Dartmouth Atlas for 2007 to 2010."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Brigham and Women's Hospital, "Similarly, adjusted data from 2007 and 2010 were obtained from the MHS Data Repository and patients assigned to HRRs. We compared high-and low-spending regions, and computed coefficient of variation (CoV) and correlation coefficients for healthcare spending, hospital inpatient days, hip surgery, and back surgery between MHS and Medicare patients. We found significant variation in spending and utilization across HRRs in both the MHS and Medicare. CoV for spending was higher in the MHS compared with Medicare, (0.24 vs 0.15, respectively) and CoV for inpatient days was 0.36 in the MHS versus 0.19 in Medicare. The CoV for back surgery was also greater in the MHS compared with Medicare (0.47 vs 0.29, respectively). Per capita Medicare spending per HRR was significantly correlated to adjusted MHS spending (r = 0.3; P<.0001). Correlation in inpatient days (r = 0.29; P<.0001) and back surgery (r = 0.52; P<.0001) was also significant. Higher spending markets in both systems were not comparable; lower spending markets were located mostly in the Midwest."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "In comparing 2 systems with similar pricing schemes, differences in spending likely reflect variation in utilization and the influence of local provider culture."

For more information on this research see: Geographic Variation in Medicare and the Military Healthcare System. American Journal of Managed Care, 2017;23(8):15-27. American Journal of Managed Care can be contacted at: Managed Care & Healthcare Communications Llc, 666 Plainsboro Rd, Ste 300, Plainsboro, NJ 08536, USA.

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from T. Adesoye, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Dept. of Surg, Center Surg & Public Hlth, Boston, MA 02115, United States. Additional authors for this research include L.G. Kimsey, S.R. Lipsitz, L.L. Nguyen, P. Goodney, S. Olaiya and J.S. Weissman.

Keywords for this news article include: Boston, Massachusetts, United States, North and Central America, Medicare and Medicaid, Health Policy, Medicare, Hospital, Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital.

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