The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released updated data that provides information on Medicare Part B physician services for the year 2013.[1] Included in the data is an abundant wealth of information on physician charges and payments that reveal significant regional disparity in costs. The graph below is just one example of the many different treatments and procedures that vary greatly from one region to the next. Health care costs typically fluctuate from one region to the next, and the map below illustrates the magnitude of traveling from one state to another for a hip replacement surgery. It is these kinds of disparities that contribute to the regional differences in premiums and Medicaid expenditures.

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[1] http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/Physician-and-Other-Supplier2013.html