Variation in inpatient hospital prices and outpatient service quantities drive geographic differences in private spending in Texas.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To measure the contribution of market-level prices, utilization, and health risk to medical spending variation among the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas (BCBSTX) privately insured population and the Texas Medicare population.

Data sources

Claims data for all BCBSTX members and publicly available CMS data for Texas in 2011.

Study design

We used observational data and decomposed overall and service-specific spending into health status and health status adjusted utilization and input prices and input prices adjusted for the BCBSTX and Medicare populations.

Principal findings

Variation in overall BCBSTX spending across HRRs appeared driven by price variation, whereas utilization variation factored more prominently in Medicare. The contribution of price to

SUBMITTER: Franzini L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4254133 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature