For GVSU’s 2016 Health Check report, researchers examined medical claims data from two insurers — Priority Health and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan — tracked by ZIP codes, according to the report. Overall, the report states, researchers found healthcare spending for diabetes, high cholesterol, coronary artery disease and depression “are consistently among the highest” in rural areas north and southwest of Grand Rapids, Mich.
Specifically, they found per-patient cost for diabetes in 2014 was as much as 10 percent to 33 percent higher in certain areas of the northern and southwestern part of Michigan’s Kent County, as well as in the state’s northeastern Ottawa County and an area within Grand Rapids, than per-patient costs in suburban areas, according to the report.
As far as expenditures to treat coronary artery disease, disparities ranged from 61 percent to 92 percent higher in the areas of Michigan’s Newaygo, Muskegon, Barry and Allegan counties compared to patients living in the lowest-cost ZIP codes around Grand Rapids, according to the report.
“What we find are really large variations in expenditures across different ZIP codes,” Kevin Callison, PhD, an assistant professor of economics at GVSU’s Seidman College of Business who co-authored the report, said, according to MiBiz. “In many cases, if you look at the range of the variation in expenditures, it’s double, sometimes almost triple, in some ZIP codes.”
The report’s authors did not delve into the potential causes for the disparities, although Dr. Callison suggests that care providers’ price differences, as well as the clinical protocols used by physician practices and hospitals that serve each ZIP code, are possibilities, according to the report.
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