The Implications of Regional Variations in Medicare Spending. Part 2: Health Outcomes and Satisfaction with Care

View larger version (16K): [in a new window]   Figure 1. Adjusted relative risk for death during follow-up across quintiles of Medicare spending. Circles represent adjusted relative risk for death among residents of hospital referral regions in the specified quintile of the End-of-Life Expenditure Index (EOL-EI) compared to the risk for death among residents of hospital referral regions in quintile 1 of the EOL-EI; bars represent 95% CIs. MCBS = Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey; MI = myocardial infarction; Q1 = quintile 1; Q2 = quintile 2; Q3 = quintile 3; Q4 = quintile 4; Q5 = quintile 5.

View larger version (20K): [in a new window]   Figure 2. Adjusted relative risk for death associated with a 10% increase in Medicare spending overall and among specified subgroups of the hip fracture cohort. Income figures refer to the average monthly Social Security income of the patients' ZIP codes. Circles represent the adjusted relative risk for death associated with a 10% increase in the End-of-Life Expenditure Index across U.S. hospital referral regions; bars represent 95% CIs for the relative risk. *Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Great Lakes regions. Did not change hospital referral region of residence in the 1 to 2 years before index admission. HMO = health maintenance organization.

View larger version (21K): [in a new window]   Figure 3. Adjusted relative risk for death associated with a 10% increase in Medicare spending overall and among specified subgroups of the colorectal cancer cohort. Income figures refer to the average monthly Social Security incomes of the patients' ZIP code. Circles represent the adjusted relative risk for death associated with a 10% increase in the End-of-Life Expenditure Index across U.S. hospital referral regions; bars represent 95% CIs for the relative risk. *Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Great Lakes regions. Did not change hospital referral region of residence in the 1 to 2 years before index admission. HMO = health maintenance organization.

View larger version (20K): [in a new window]   Figure 4. Adjusted relative risk for death associated with a 10% increase in Medicare spending overall and among specified subgroups of the acute myocardial infarction ( MI) cohort. Income figures refer to the average monthly Social Security income of the patients' ZIP codes. Circles represent the adjusted relative risk for death associated with a 10% increase in the End-of-Life Expenditure Index across U.S. hospital referral regions; bars represent 95% CIs for the relative risk. *Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Great Lakes regions. Did not change hospital referral region of residence in the 1 to 2 years before index admission. HMO = health maintenance organization.

View larger version (21K): [in a new window]   Figure 5. Satisfaction with care. An arrow pointing upward indicates a positive association between increased spending and satisfaction. Bars represents 95% CIs. Q1 = quintile 1; Q5 = quintile 5.