MedPAC Reports on Regional Variation in Medicare Service Use
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has released a report, "Report to the Congress: Regional Variation in Medicare Service Use," with related appendices. The report looks at regional variation in Medicare spending and in the use of Medicare-covered services. According to MedPAC, service use in higher-use areas (90th percentile) is 30% greater than in lower-use areas (10th percentile), and spending is about 55% greater in higher spending areas compared to lower spending areas. Regional variation is particularly high for post-acute sector services, although areas that are high use in one sector (such as inpatient, ambulatory, and post-acute) tend to be high use overall. The MedPAC report does not include policy recommendations, but MedPAC warns policymakers that "[e]xtremely high levels of service use in certain areas may be driven by overuse and, possibly, fraud and abuse. Additional policy measures may have to be taken in those areas beyond those used to address variation in general."
