Variation in Physician Spending and Association With Patient Outcomes.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

While the substantial variation in health care spending across regions and hospitals is well known, key clinical decisions are ultimately made by physicians. However, the degree to which spending varies across physicians and the clinical consequences of that variation are unknown.

Objective

To investigate variation in spending across physicians and its association with patient outcomes.

Design, setting, and participants

For this retrospective data analysis, we analyzed a 20% random sample of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries 65 years and older who were hospitalized with a nonelective medical condition and treated by a general internist between January 1, 2011, and December 31, 2014. We first quantified the proportion of variation in Medicare Part B spe

SUBMITTER: Tsugawa Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5470365 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature