title: State-level variation in Medicare spending.
abstract: Theoretically, Medicare provides one standard benefit package to all enrollees. But because of State-level variations in populations, service supply, and local practice patterns, national policy changes may have unequal impacts on access and service utilization. Across-the-board policy changes may create hardships in one area while appropriately discouraging use in another area. In this article, the authors describe State-level variations in Medicare enrollees, their insurance coverage, 1995 Medicare and beneficiary spending patterns in aggregate, per capita, and by service, and certain spending patterns for dually eligible beneficiaries. These data are useful for considering the State-level effects of payment reform.
authors.affiliation: The MEDSTAT Group, Cambridge, MA 02140, USA. barbara.gage@medstat.com
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gage
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chi
mesh_terms: D000066:Accounting; D000368:Aged; D003625:Data Collection; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage; D008484:Medicaid / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006278:Medicare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011156:Population Density; D013219:State Government; D014481:United States