Luisa Franzini, PhD

Variation in private spending reflects the ability of the local population to pay for healthcare, whereas variation in Medicare is more driven by health status.

The authors demonstrate the utility of distributed data models for reporting of local trends and variation in utilization, pricing, and spending for commercially insured beneficiaries.

The disparities in survival among node-positive breast cancer patients of African American and Hispanic heritage are not explained by nodal surgery utilization.

We found that, in 2008, variations across Texas in total spending and inpatient utilization are similar in Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas and Medicare.