Geographic Variation in Medicare Drug Spending

The widespread geographic variation in Medicare spending has garnered a great deal of attention in the health care reform debate, both as a marker of inefficient resource use and as a window into potential strategies for improving the quality and value of U.S. health care. Analyses to date, however, have focused solely on inpatient and outpatient spending (Parts A and B) and have lacked information on pharmaceutical spending (Part D). With drug spending accounting for a rising share of total health care spending, these data limitations hinder interpretation of the variation in spending: do Medicare patients who spend more on . . .