Physician Payment Reform and Hospital Referrals

摘要

For over 30 years researchers have documented significant variation in medical care spending, both between geographic regions and across hospitals within regions, that does not seem to be related to outcomes. Much of the spending variation in the commercial insurance market is due to differences in prices across providers.1 Given the current policy focus on reducing medical care costs, these findings raise the question: what can be done to reduce the variation in prices, bringing the highest in line with the rest?