Regional Variation: Interpretation

The quality and efficiency of the care patients receive is often determined by the accident of where they live and seek care. – Dartmouth Atlas Brief Within-[region] variation in spending and utilization is significantly larger than the across [region] variation for both Medicare and Medicaid.” – Report for the Institute of Medicine. Which statement is…

IOM Final Report: Geographic Variation in Health Care Spending

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) was charged with answering two questions: How do health care spending, utilization, and quality vary across geographic regions? Should Medicare provider payments be adjusted for regionally-based measures of value? Based on research conducted by Precision Health Economics, Acumen, and other research firms, IOM reached the following conclusions: Geographic variation in…

Geographic Variation in Health Care Spending and Promotion of High-Value Health Care: Preliminary Committee Observations

Last week I shared a report I wrote at Acumen that described regional variation in spending, utilization and quality for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.  Based on our work, an Institute of Medicine committee (lead by Joseph P. Newhouse, Alan Garber, and Robin P. Graham) reached the following conclusions in their newly released report: Health care…

Geographic Variation in Health Care Spending and Promotion of High-Value Care: Interim Report

The Healthcare Economist has a new report out for the Institute of Medicine.  The report is co-authored with a number of outstanding individuals at Acumen including: Thomas MaCurdy, Jay Bhattacharya, Daniella Perlroth, Anita Au-Yeung, Hani Bashour, Camille Chicklis, Kennan Cronen, Brandy Lipton, Shahin Saneinejad, Elen Shrestha, and Sajid Zaidi. IOM summarizes the goals of the…

Algorithms to Predict Breast Cancer Stage

Cost effectiveness and quality analysis of the treatment of cancer has long been a goal of health services researchers.  In particular, researchers aim to determine whether various treatments provide cost-effective methods to improve longevity and quality.  Physicians, however, use different treatments depending on the patient’s cancer stage.  Although most cost-effectiveness researchers want to take into…