Surgery
-
Review
Variations in payment patterns for surgical care in the centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
We investigated provider and regional variation in payments made to surgeons by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) by indexing payments to unique beneficiaries treated and examined the proportion of charges that resulted in payments. Understanding variation in care within CMS may prove actionable by identifying modifiable, and potentially unwarranted, variations. ⋯ We found significant variation in patterns of payments for surgical care in CMS.